A Guardians Wish
by BackwardsHazard
Summary: Tsukishima's final attack curses Ichigo to a life away from all the people he loves and swore to protect. 10 years later Ichigo finds himself in the newly named Shinto Teito, Still running from his past and looking for work when a certain miko dressed Sekirei ends up landing on top of him. Post AU Lost Agent arc Fullbringer Ichigo. Some humor and a Harem
1. Chapter 1

_**Ok I know you guys are gonna ask me this**_

_**"Hazard, WTF you doin man? Why you postin another story when you haven't finished any of your others?"**_

_**Well to answer that.**_

_**I'm doing this because this idea hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday while I was monotonously raking up leaves in my yard. I was so shocked by this idea I tripped. LITERALLY tripped and fell. I knew that this idea was going to haunt me if I didn't put it down to paper... or txt doc whatever. So that's what I did, and now I'm positing it, hoping you guys like the idea cuz this might take over my posting schedule for the next couple weeks if people really like this story, I'm feeling the zen off this thing like freaking crazy.**_

_**That basically covers all the possible questions of me starting ANOTHER story _**_

_**I'm pretty sure that this idea is unique since I've never seen ANYONE use it before, so if it is original and you guys use the idea for another bleach story, please say where you got the idea from , because let me tell you, falling on a rake and a pile of sticks and leaves for this idea hurt and I don't want that pain to be in vain...**_

_**Yeah I'm being stupid again.**_

_**Ok shameless plugging of my stories time.**_

_**Sage of the Elements: Naruto story where Naruto is able to use all elements, including bloodline elements. Harem, comedy.**_

_**Itachi: Familiar of Zero: Itachi get's transported to the FoZ world and becomes Louise's familiar. Pretty self explanatory.**_

_**Sensha-do Shinobi: Alternate Earth, Naruto X Girls und Panzer X (minor) Broken Sky cross over. Katyusha and Nonna along with 298 other of their half siblings are super soldiers of Soviet Russia, they use Spirit stones, the main powers from Broken Sky as their abilities. After WW2 they get chased from their homeland by Axis forces and flee across the unknown sea to the Naruto continent which is currently in it's own war. The third Shinobi world war. How will the Naruto continent deal with a bunch of tank driving super soldiers. Read to find out.**_

_**/End Shameless plug and back to your regularly scheduled programming.**_

_**Ok now for the Fic o' the Day: **_Hold My Hand by Bonesboy15. _**A godlike blind Naruto fic with a powerful doujutsu, A NarutoXTayuya fic. A bit of a bitter Naruto fic since this is 6.5 on a scale of 10 of Naruto abuse.**_

_**1 being where Naruto was never abused and lived like the hero he should have, 5 - 5.5 is canon Naruto and 10 being where he was basically murdered in cold blood like in those NarutoXBleach challenges by VFSNAKE. That shouldn't take away from the story though so enjoy the nice read. Also it's a bit of a slow updater so expect that too.**_

_**Song/vid of the day: **_ FaytxStay ~ Shitennou - The Four Heavenly Knights - . _**An excellent song from Monmuso Quest. A Monstergirl H-game that is epic sauce to an Nth degree. If you haven't played it then you need to now. It may not have amazing game play but my god the story. THESE FEELS! This song is a remix of one of the battle themes from the game, so enjoy the epic badassness.**_

_**Word of the day: **_Epicurean (ep·i·cu·re·an) adj. Devoted to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, particularly the enjoyment of gourmet food. _**Found that word while looking up something to make for dinner, found it amusing.**_

_**I do not own Bleach OR Sekirei. Tite kubo and Sakurako Gokurakuin own those respectively. But how badass do you think it would be if they ever did a collaboration?**_

_**-ooo-**_

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

_Flashback_

**Narration/machines talking**

**"Hollow talking"**

_**'Hollow Thinking'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 1: Ripples in fate.**_

_Memories, fragments of truth. All so fragile in the wind._

**"NOW BOARDING 9:00 TRAIN TO SHINTO TEITO."**

Train doors opened, allowing the people waiting to board the train. Among the crowd was an individual that stood head and should above most of the people in the small train car, His orange hair sticking out even if his height hadn't already done that. Not that many people would have said anything with the mans perpetual scowl in place along with his corded muscles and set jaw projecting an imposing figure for anyone who witnessed him. In fact, most people just either ignored him or ran away really, really fast...

The man grunted in annoyance as he grabbed one of the hand holds nearest the train door and stood, waiting for the train to take off.

The man's gaze moved to one of the windows as the as the machine started to move, watching as the early morning sun popped in and out of view as his window was obstructed by the tree line, the sunrise had always been an amazing thing for him, even when he was still just a kid, mainly because it was the same shade as his hair

The man's name was Ichigo Kurosaki.

Age 26.

Hair:Orange.

Eyes: Brown.

Occupation...

Ichigo's eyes hardened as he turned away from the sunset, the memories of his past still hurting him even now a decade since they'd happened.

The Orange haired stopped for a moment as he pulled something from his pocket, it looked like a badge or maybe an overly large belt buckle with a skull like design on it's face. Ichigo stared at the skull for almost five minutes, beginning to scare a couple of the passengers before he put the thing away with a sigh.

It was almost an hour later that the train pulled into Shinto Teito station. All those aboard got off the train, many of which stayed as far away from the orange haired man as possible, many believing him to be a thug. Never mind that he was just wearing a pair of blue jeans and a gray button up T-shirt. But he didn't really care about what they thought, in fact he cared very little about what people thought nowadays. The only thing that could really ever set him off was...

***ROOOOARRRR***

The badge in his pocket started beeping.

...Hollows.

Ichigo's eyes sent out a wave of his spiritual pressure, not enough to create a field of spiritual pressure, but it was enough to pinpoint where the hollow was located. Ducking into an alley the man glanced around for a second before he seemed to disappear, several lines of green light following behind the blur that Ichigo had become.

Elsewhere, in a small park the spirit of a little girl ran on legs too transparent to be among the living. Sadly they were real enough to catch her foot on a root and be sent sprawling across the dirt. The girl quickly got to her feet, wiping the dirt off of her knee and breathing heavily.

The girls eyes widened as a shadow fell over her.

**"Well, little girl. The chase is up. Time to be devoured." ** The fat, grotesque creature in front of the girl had a pitch black body with a pig like white mask on it's face. It also had glowing red eyes which stared at the girl in barely controlled hunger. **"Die." ** The creature lunged at the girl, moment's away from eating her soul.

*Shink*

The girl screamed, holding her body with her arms, crying out to her mother and father for help. When the pain didn't come, the girl turned to stare at the back of a human, or at least what she thought was a human, though he was really really tall and had the strangest orange hair.

"You alright little girl?" Ichigo spoke to her, staring over the back of his shoulder at her.

"Y-yeah mister." The girl stuttered, watching as the big creature that had been chasing her fell off the end of a short katana like sword. It had an odd cross guard that looked something like a skull and cross bones in the center of pentagon like shape, and the handle was wrapped in a soft white cloth. It also had a wickedly curved tip and points just past the crossguard on the blade. A gurgling sound brought her eyes back to the creature that was chasing her as it faded into nothingness right before her eyes.

"That's good." Ichigo turned, kneeling in front of her. "Were you scared?"

The girl nodded quickly, tears welling up in her eyes.

"It's alright." He comforted her, holding her head to his shoulder so she could cry. "Just let it out." After the girl had soaked his shoulder the man stood up and flipped his sword around to where the pommel was facing the girl. "I'm sorry I have to do this." He murmured. "But I'm here to send you to the afterlife little one."

The girl's eyes widened. "A-a-re you a S-S-Shinigami!?" The girl stuttered again, unaware of how close to the mark she actually was.

Ichigo frowned. "Yeah, I guess you could say I am."

"Oh." She mumbled, poking her fingers together. "Will I be able to see my mommy and daddy there?"

_'Ah'_ Ichigo thought. _'She must have lost her parents when she died, they might still be around here, or maybe they passed on thinking the girl would be with them.'_ Ichigo closed his eyes, debating on whether or not to tell her the truth. After a moment of silence he made a decision.

"I'm not going to lie to you little girl." He said finally. "The soul society is a really big place. it would take you years to walk from one side to the other. You might never find your parents there." The girls eyes fell, as tears began to form. "However." The girl perked up a bit at the warm tone in the man's voice. "You live a long time in soul society before you're reincarnated. Several hundred years actually." He flashed a small grin her way. "If you remember their names and faces you could ask around for them, and maybe they'll be looking for you too. Don't lose hope okay, I don't see fate being that cruel to you." He rubbed his hands through her hair.

The girl giggled a couple times before pouting. "You're really nice Mr. Shinigami-san."

A small sad smile crossed his face at her words. "Yeah... I guess I am." He held up the butt of his sword to show the girl a small symbol on the pommel. "This here will let me send you to Soul Society, or heaven if you want to call it that. All I gotta do is tap you on the forehead with it, are you ready to go?"

The girl frowned for a moment before it turned into a beaming smile. "Yeah mister, I'm ready." The pommel popped her on the head, leaving a small imprint of the symbol on her forehead. As ahe faded from view the girl stared directly into the Ichigo's eyes. "Hey Mr. Shinigami, I never got your name."

"It's Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Ichigo." The girl giggled. "Alright Strawberry-kun." A small tic mark appeared on Ichigo's head at the all too familiar nickname. "Could I ever become a Shinigami like you and help people like me?"

Ichigo snorted. "Yeah kid, you can go to the Seireitei and learn to be a great Shinigami, it's dangerous and hard work though, so if you really want to be one you better train your butt off."

"Alright!" The girl giggled. "By the way mister. My name's Mei, Mei Takahana and I'll be the best Shinigami ever." The light surrounding the girl seemed to coalesce around her body for a moment before she disappeared entirely.

When the light show dimmed back down to normal Ichigo's small smile fell, as he stared down at the sword in his hand. particularly the badge that made up the cross guard.

_'A Shinigami eh... sorry little one, I haven't been a Shinigami in a long time...'_ Ichigo's stared at the pomel of his sword, one of several powers he had been able to recreate from his old days as a shinigami. His eye's went skyward, watching as a small bird flew by and the memories of his past flashed before his eyes.

Ichigo Kurosaki.

Age:26.

Hair:Orange.

Eyes:Brown.

Occupation: Fullbringer.

_**-ooo-**_

**It wasn't supposed to happen like this. It wasn't meant to be this way...**

_Ichigo stared down at the corpse of Tsukishima__ in horror. The dead man's face was pale and lifeless, but the wicked smirk on the man's lips belied the sad state he was in. The man had gotten his last laugh and it was going to haunt the sixteen year old for the rest of his days._

**Why did it always end up like this? His mother, His family, His friends... why.**

_"Get out!" A bearded man yelled in anger, his eyes glazed over in righteous fury._

_"B-but dad." Ichigo began but was cut off._

_"That's Isshin to you, and you are no son of mine!" He pointed to the room that used to be Ichigo's. "Grab your things and LEAVE! I want nothing to do with you anymore, Masaki would be ashamed of you!" Without another word the man left the room, heading back to his room to console Yuzu who was crying in the next room._

_Ichigo's heart pounded in his chest as his eyes began to water. Was he really crying? Numbly the teen walked up to his room, meeting Karin in the hall._

_"Kar-" He tried to speak only for his head to snap to the side, a bright red hand print on his face._

_"You are such a bastard Ichigo, I hate you." Without another word the girl left to be with the rest of her family._

_Ichigo packed the things in his room, a cold feeling in the bottom of his stomach._

_As he left he heard Yuzu crying even more, it seemed that even now she loved her brother, but what she thought he had done confused that love, tainted it and ultimately turned it back on her. _

_The teen walked in a daze as a few of the neighbors and people he knew, gave him dirty looks and spat in his direction._

_A few minutes later he came across Chad and Orihime walking together._

_Ichigo numbly waved a hand in their direction, hoping against hope that-_

_WHAM!_

_A fist struck him in the face, filled with just enough spiritual energy to nearly give him a concussion. Ichigo slammed into a light post as several of the people in the street cheered._

_"Ichigo." The dark skin man spoke, not with malice or outright hate, but a severe disdain and disappointment. He didn't say another word as he walked away, clenching his fist in anger._

_Orihime, unlike the others stood there for a moment, too unsure to move. She stared at Ichigo's eyes for a moment, saddened by how dead they looked, Ichigo was too shocked to realize this fact, but even then Orihime couldn't find it in herself to forgive this man...no, this monster... The only show of kindness she gave him was a small handkerchief to wipe up the blood that was falling from where Chad had struck him._

**Was it his curse to always get the short end of the stick?**

_Ichigo sat in the farthest most back corner of the room in his classroom, the eyes of every student and teacher on him, their eyes filled with disdain or outright hatred._

_"Ichigo Kurosaki." The teacher spoke evenly. "I'm surprised you decided to show up. You have guts, I'll give you that." The blank stare that he received back from the broken teen did little to quell the angry stares on him as he tapped the blackboard behind him. "Regardless of your misdeeds, you're still a student and I expect you to at least act decently in this class, I don't want any 'incidents' happening while you're around._

_The other students in the room scooted their seats away from Ichigo, scowling at the teen like he carried the plague._

**Why me?**

_Sneaker clad feet landed on the tile roof of a nearby shrine, the only other occupant besides himself was a short bodied and short haired young woman with cold eyes and an even colder zanpaku-to._

_"I thought I told you never to speak to me again Ichigo." The girl spoke coldly, her eyes boring into him with a cold fury._

_"Rukia I just wanted-"_

_"Ichigo." Her eyes softened for a moment before the look of anger replaced it. "Despite you saving me, you've done things that cant be forgiven. Soul Society doesn't want anything to do with you anymore." She turned on her heels and opened a Senkaimon to soul society, throwing a few parting words before she left. "Oh, and you can keep that Substitute soul reaper badge. Since you can't use it for you Soul Reaper duties anymore, consider it a gift for what few good things you did for Soul Society." She then walked through the doors and disappeared for good._

_Ichigo stood there, too shocked to even move. He didn't even move when the rain started, drenching him to the bone._

_After an hour of standing there in the rain Ichigo looked up into the moonlit sky, the full moon casting it's light down upon the poor souls like himself who were caught in fate's unmoving hands_

**The power of fate can create waves of unimaginable power, it only takes the right angle to ride that wave to its destination.**

_Ichigo stared out over the city of Karakura for the last time, his back was to the train, headed for one of the other wards of Tokyo, to get away from it all. He wasn't welcome in Karakura any longer and he doubted he'd ever return._

_A single tear fell from his eye as he turned away from his home, his family, his friends...everything. He said goodbye that day and hadn't looked back since._

**My fate stopped that day, the waves went silent but time strangely enough continues to march on.**

_**-ooo-**_

Ichigo sighed, memories were a blessing and a curse.

Tukushima had the last laugh that day. Got the final punch in before he was down for the count.

Fullbringers were amazing like that. Their powers were built upon their greatest desires and pride, manifested in something they trust absolutely. Their fullbring usually manifested as this desire. For instance Chad's power was based on his Abeulo's want for him to protect people with his own two hands. This manifested in Chad's right arm as Brazo Derecha de Gigante. But that was where things got interesting for Fullbringers. Each Fullbringer had an alternate, final form to their powers and where they had to be in tune with their desires for them to use their normal abilities. They instead had to go against their nature to use their final ability. Chad's left arm: Brazo Izquierda del Diablo was an example. He had to go against his gentle nature, against his Abuelo's wishes to use his power to attack, to kill if necessary. Though he used his power to defend others through an attack.

Ginjō was another example. To use the full potential of his fullbring he had to use his Bankai in tandem with it. Something he despised above all else because of his previous affiliation with Soul Society.

Tsukishima's powers however... They went above and beyond all the others.

_**-ooo-**_

_"Seems like this is it." Tsukushima chuckled, blood pouring out of his mouth from the lethal wound Ichigo had inflicted._

_All around him were his friends and comrades, including Ginjō__, who laid lifeless on the ground after Ichigo had nearly cut him in half. It was a foolish mistake on their part, they had bitten off more than they could chew. Ichigo's powers weren't just a fullbring, they came from an actual hollow as well, an inner hollow. They took some of his power, sure. But that didn't stop Ichigo from unleashing his full Fullbringer power on them, killing Giriko and Yukio in one attack. It seemed as if Ichigo had lost all control with himself, and it was only him sparing Jackie and Riruka that pointed otherwise. He knocked the two of them out and left them beside their dead comrades._

_Ginjō__ had been furious at the death of his friends, despite his selfish behavior he actually liked his fellow Xcution members._

_The battle between Ichigo and __Ginjō__ raged, ending in __Ginjō__ dead at Kurosaki's feet. each time he killed he gained a bit of his power back. Then he faced Tsukushima in battle._

_And now Tsukushima lay in a pool of his own blood staring up at the angel of death that had come to take him._

_"Heh" The man chuckled as the irony of that statement hit him. "HehehehahahahahahaHAHAHAHAAHHA." His voice rang out in a broken laughter that cracked in several places, but that didn't stop him. Ichigo looked down at the man in anger. He had been betrayed, left for dead by someone he had trusted, that he had felt a connection to. The only reason he hadn't killed the two women was because they hadn't outright threatened his friends. The other two had. __Ginjō__ along with Tsukushima had been complicit from the start so that was their death warrant signed and posted right there._

_They had hurt him and his friends so they deserved a warriors end. The end of his sword to be more precise._

_That's when Tsukushima's laughter stopped._

_"Ah Ichigo, I'm sorry to say this but this is the end...for me and for you.__" In a flash the man had opened the book in his hand, nearly ripping the Fullbring bookmark from its pages. In a burst of Ichigo's stolen spiritual power that Ginjō__ had given him, Tsukushima cast his most powerful attack. "Book of the End: End of Memories!" A bright white flash seemed to fill all of existence as the white light blinded all within. As the light faded Tsukushima chuckled at Ichigo, the only person who would ever remember him._

_"I curse you Ichigo, to live your life hated, that your destiny be stopped here." The man's laugh turned insane for a moment. "End of memories, A double edged sword if ever their was one. My own pride of wanting people to know me gave rise to my Book of the End. To allow me to force memories of me on them." He shook his head at the worthlessness of it all. "But for a Fullbringer to use their ultimate power, a sacrifice must be made. It may be trivial like sacrificing your pride momentarily. For me" Tsukushima's eyes glossed over. "I have been erased from everyone's memory to power my attack. I would have erased the memory of you from everyone's mind as a fitting revenge, but that would be too generous."_

_Tsukushima's face turned into a cruel smirk, ruining his good looks in the process. "I curse you to forever be hated, to be seen as an outcast, scum of the worst sort." Tsukushima's voice rose. "Every oath you have made you have broken, every vow you have taken you spat upon it, everything you've promised you've forgotten. Know despair Ichigo in knowing that the only person who knows the truth about you will die tonight and be forever forgotten by all." Blood flowed from the man's lips. "I curse you Ichigo Kurosaki, to live the life you've always feared." And with that the man died, leaving a shocked and horrified Ichigo to stare at the man's lifeless body."_

_**-ooo-**_

Ichigo's fist clenched as he stared down at his fullbring. It hadn't had a name back then, he thought he was going to get his soul reaper powers back at the time so it was a trivial thing to know the name of his weapon. He was a Fullbringer now so he needed to know his weapons name, much like his Shinigami self.

Protectors Honor. That was his fullbring. That was his oath. That was his vow. That was his promise.

His destiny may have been stopped that day, his fate crushed under the hands of a man, who in death, cursed him to live the life he had always feared. To live a life hated by everyone he had protected, hated by everyone he loved.

It was the ultimate unperson or character assassination in existence. End of memories: The complete opposite of Tsukushima's normal fullbring which allowed him to add or remove anyone from everyone else's memories. Everyone who had ever met him in fact. It was only a one time deal but that was all it took for him to rewrite what everyone knew about the real Ichigo Kurosaki. In one moment Tsukushima had damned him in the eyes of everyone who had known him, turning him into a complete monster, bastard and scum of the worst sort.

In their eyes he had done every kind of despicable act that their mind could come up with at the time, to blame and slander him despite the fact that he had never done those things.

Now Ichigo ran. Ran from his past and ran from his future. Living in the now, the stopped destiny, the closed hands of fate that wouldn't let him go.

Ichigo turned to the vapor of the hollow that he had killed, using his Fullbring Ichigo 'pulled' on the 'soul' of the object. Swallowing what was left of the hollow's leftover reishi still in the air.

With a light green aura the reishi in the air entered Ichigo's body, absorbing the Hollows powers. It was one of the things that sustained Ichigo when he hadn't eaten anything in weeks. Hell Ichigo still had a hard time sleeping in the middle of the night, too haunted by his past to do anything but stare at a wall in seiza, absorbing ambient reishi to sustain his body and mind.

With another sigh the man set off towards central Shinto Teito, the newly named capital of Japan, Tokyo being it's former title. He was here looking for work after his last job had gone south. There was work here a plenty with MBI now commanding most of the city, which was why he had moved there.

MBI, Or Mid Bio Informatics was an extremely powerful conglomerate that had rose to power around twenty years ago, providing medical technology to the public that outshone everything else before it. It had been only a few years since they had taken majority control over Tokyo and had change the name. Now Ichigo was here to find work in this technological wonderland, at least to let him last a few years on if he ever needed it.

Ichigo was still in his own little world when he felt the ground shake, at first he thought it was an earthquake but then he heard a woman scream..

"KYAAA! Please get out of the way!" Ichigo spun in place to search for the source of the noise. His eyes widened when he saw the strangest thing he'd ever seen... and considering what he'd been through so far that was kind of a big deal.

The strange thing was a woman. Or to be more precise. A woman wearing a what looked to be a miko white and pink miko's outfit...well at least a Miko outfit you'd find at some sleazy 'Novelty' shop. The skirt that the brown haired woman wore barely covered her panties and the Gi she wore above the skirt was so tight around her absolutely massive breasts that the things were giggling while she fell.

Oh and speaking of falling, she was falling right towards him from the top of a VERY high set of stairs. A fall that would normally kill a human.

Reacting on instinct Ichigo reached out and grabbed the woman mid fall, he would have tried to do more than just catch her but the girl was surprisingly heavy and she had already knocked him off balance.

With an exhale of all the air from Ichigo's lungs the girl landed on top of him.

That would have been all fine and dandy if she hadn't landed on him with her ass in his face. Her well toned behind being covered by a very small, very sheer pain of panties.

Ichigo's eyes widened as blood rushed to his cheeks in a blush. Believe it or not the man was still a virgin. Running from your past didn't really leave him much time to devote himself to being intimate with a woman and this was probably the closest he'd ever been to a woman's 'womanhood' except for maybe when Yoruichi stripped naked during his Bankai training.

"As I expected, that was too high to jump from." The girl turned her derriere away from Ichigo's face to stare him in the eyes.

"You alright?" Ichigo asked gruffly, trying to erase the mental picture of this woman's (In Ichigo's honest opinion) fine ass out of his mind. It wasn't polite to oggle a woman, and he had long since gotten over his "Must have sex all the time" phase when he broke the teenage barrier_._

The woman blinked for a moment, staring at Ichigo's face. Then as if the sun shined right on her face the woman's face brightened. "Thank you, sir! You must have caught me."

Ichigo blushed slightly as the girl thanked him, it had to have been the cutest thing he'd ever seen, bar none. "Nah, it was nothing, I was just standing-" Ichigo's eyes widened, idly he noted that the girl had sensed it to. Reacting on instinct he grabbed the girl (who was about to grab him and move him as well) and leapt back.

And just in time too, as a Bolt of lightning gouged a deep, scorched crater where they had just been.

"There's no use running." A haughty voice spoke up.

Ichigo looked up to a rooftop where the voice was coming from. And immediately blushed again. Seriously what was with the women in this city? The two black haired women in question were wearing the most stripperific pair of bondage suits he had ever seen. He also noted that the two girls were twins, with the one who was speaking being slightly taller and with a slightly larger bust. The older twin he assumed.

Not like it mattered much seeing as they both were rather busty in that regard. Their clothing (if you could call it that) was a slightly different color between them, with the older being a deep purple while the younger wore a dark fuchsia.

"Come and fight us!" The older looking of the two twins yelled, pointing to the girl in Ichigo's arms.

"I'm not going to fight yet!" The girl in his arms pouted cutely. "I'm not ready."

"Too bad!" The other of the lightning twins mouthed off, the two of them dropping to the ground in a fighting stance. "We're here to fight you."

The busty shrine maiden grabbed Ichigo's hand and was prepared to run off with him when she was nearly yanked off her feet. She turned back, wide-eyed at the man she had tried to run off with. He hadn't budged an inch despite her massive strength. Unseen by anyone small green wisps of light danced around the sole's of Ichigo's sneakers.

The man in question was staring at the twins, a small frown on his face. He had felt it. The badge in his pocket had felt it. The warmth coming from his fullbring filling him up, sending a tingling sensation through his body.

Protectors Honor. His pride in being a defender of the innocent. It called for him to defend this woman, something that hadn't happened in nearly a decade.

Reaching a hand into his pocket he fiddled with the badge for a moment, letting the warmth wash over him as he watched the two woman in front of him wait for an opening to strike. They really wanted to hurt the girl behind him, something his pride wouldn't allow.

_Elsewhere a flat sheet of dark nothingness seemed to rise imperceptibly._

He wouldn't let these women hurt the girl, he would defend her.

"What's your name Miss?" Ichigo asked the girl behind him, not taking his eyes off of the twins.

The girl nearly jumped in surprise at how serious Ichigo's voice was. However she smiled at the man's back moments later when she felt the will to protect her rolling off the man's body like a calming wave. "It's Musubi." She spoke happily.

"Musubi." Ichigo rolled the name around his mouth for a moment as he glared at the two women in front of him. He held a single hand back to keep the girl from trying to grab him again. "Stay back Musubi." Unseen by anyone, luminescent green lines ran along the insides of his clothing and under his skin, 'pulling' the utmost maximum out of his clothing, making them as durable as steel and hardening his skin and bones to where they were superhuman. A feat he had discovered after fighting a Quincy much like Uryu on one of his jobs in Osaka.

Blut Vene it was called by them and was a powerful defensive technique much like an arrancar's Hierro.

Ichigo called his Kōra, or Carapace in English.

The orange haired man fell into a small crouch, holding his fists in front of his face. It was an adapted form of Muai Thai and American kickboxing that he had learned along with a half dozen other martial arts over the past ten years to increase his body's natural strength, dexterity and stamina to stand up to the use and abuse of his fullbring.

Now he held his body clenched tight, ready to spring forward at any moment to attack. He tensed as the twins began their attack. "Just stay behind me Musubi." He growled. "I'll protect you." Ichigo's eyes hardened. "That's a promise."

_In the darkness a single ripple formed, carried out into the unyielding nothingness._

_**-ooo-**_

_**So tell me what you think of this sort of thing guys? Is it interesting or what?**_

_**Till next time I guess.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Ok, feeling good about this chapter and it let me crack it out in record speed, let's see if you guys (and girls) feel the same.**_

_**Fic o' the day: **_Devil Summoner Naruto by Terra Ace. _** This is a curious story that follows SMT Devil Summoners Lore. Basically Naruto becomes a Devil Summoner. Yeah, that's about it. I haven't read too far into it but its a good read so far. Enjoy.**_

_**Song/vid of the day:**_ AMV - Mindless Vindication 720p _** Yeah it's an AMV. Yeah it has music from MSI in it. Yes I'm awesome like that. If you don't know who MSI is... shame on you. Look up Mindless Self Indulgence and educate yourself in the fine 'lead singer's self-titled' genre of Industrial Jungle Pussy Punk.**_

_**Word/s of the day: **_Industrial Jungle Pussy Punk _** YOU WILL LEARN THE MEANING OF THESE WORD BY CTHULU. D:**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Sekirei. Bleh, don't feel like saying anything witty today.**_

_**-ooo-**_

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

_Flashback_

**Narration/machines talking**

**"Hollow talking"**

_**'Hollow Thinking'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter**__** 2: Let the Games Begin**_

_You fear that which you do not know. I fear that which I know of, yet cannot escape from._

Blood pumped wildly through Ichigo's veins as the lightning twins, true to their name launched a pair of supercharged bolts of electricity. Thanks to his enhanced reflexes and senses due to his Kōra he was able to push Musubi onto her back, while at the same time turning ever so slightly allowing the bolts of electricity to pass harmlessly by him to slam into a kiosk down the road, sending debris and civilians flying through the air. Ichigo's eyes widened as he got a good look at the lightning the two were using as it passed him by.

_'That attack just now...it was made of Reiryoka...'_ These people were just like him. _'This just got a lot more dangerous.'_ He grimaced, ignoring the screams from the crowd as they ran for safety, he instead focused on the women in front of him, mainly the ones who were charging another attack.

He wouldn't give them that luxury. Rushing forward with a speed that surprised the two Sekirei, Ichigo dodged another pair of bolts, leaning so far left at one point that it was a miracle that he hadn't fallen as the next set of bolts passed over his right shoulder. Little did the two know he was using his fullbring power to attach himself momentarily to the ground as he ran, using his sheer leg strength to keep himself balanced.

The two girls eyes widened as Ichigo got in their personal space. Targeting the older looking girl first Ichigo delivered a wicked right cross to the woman's face sending her to the ground and easily blacking an eye despite the girls Sekirei durability.

"Sister!" The younger Sekirei yelled, coming to the defense of her sibling. She threw a relatively weak punch (For her species at least) at Ichigo's head.

The orange haired Fullbringer swatted the offending attack to the side, grabbing the woman's arm with his other hand and twisting his body half way around to throw her over his shoulder and into the hard concrete ground.

Normally, with the way he had thrown her along with how hard she'd hit that would have killed a regular human, but with the Sekirei it just knocked the air from her lungs. No, Ichigo had to do something a bit more drastic as he punted the woman in the head with a debilitating kick, knocking the poor woman out cold.

Let it not be said that Ichigo didn't fight to win, regardless of the damage he inflicted on the opponent and he'd long since realized that even women could kick his ass if he let them, so he held no qualms about beating these two up. Their lightning attacks only sealed that line of reasoning.

The older of the two twins shakily got to her feet, cursing the orange haired man as she charged another one of her lightning attacks. Ichigo dodged that as easily as the first. It really was an easy thing to do when the attack struck in a straight line with a very small angle of attack. It was basically like fighting someone wielding a gun, keep out of the line of fire and you were essentially given free reign to kick their ass.

And kick her ass he did. As soon as she launched the lightning attack Ichigo had dove forward into a roll, letting the attack pass harmlessly overhead while at the same time moving forward back into the older Sekirei's personal space.

With a calm efficiency he broke through her meager guard, blocking the relatively weak punch though he still grunted in effort from the heavier than normal blow. Once he had moved the limb out of the way he focused Reiryoka into his fist, the small charge making it vibrate slightly, producing a low hum. The older lightning twin didn't realize until too late that trying to block that punch with her one free arm was a very bad idea as the attack plowed into and around her arm, landing squarely in her abdomen, dumping the spiritual attack into her body like a sledgehammer.

It was an attack that he had devised from witnessing Chad's fullbring, it wasn't nearly as powerful as his friend's attack but it certainly left an impression on people.

The older of the sisters buckled under the strike as the back of her clothing blew off, nearly exposing the woman to the world. As she slid off of Ichigo's fist and fell to the ground in pain, her insides rebelled against her and emptied the contents of her stomach.

Yeah, having your internal organs scrambled like that tended to do that to people.

Now that his job was done, Ichigo turned back to Musubi who had sparkles in her eyes.

"That was amazing!" She gushed, her eye's lighting up like diamonds. She rushed forward to tackle the young man but was stopped by an unmoving hand.

"You can thank me later." Ichigo grunted, already hearing police sirens in the distance, he wanted to be well away from the scene before any authorities showed up. The two left, Ichigo dragging the poor girl behind him unfortunately not seeing a figure step out of the shadows of an alleyway, watching the two leave then glancing down at the two downed Sekirei. The figure was dressed in all black with a mask that covered their face except for their red eyes and spiky silver hair.

"Well, you certainly got your asses handed to you." The person chuckled.

"H-Homura...you bastard" The older of the two twins gasped, still holding her aching stomach.

The now named man snorted at the insult. "Like I've told you before Hibiki if you continue to go after unwinged Sekirei you'll get hurt, hmm I always thought I would be the one hurting you." The man glanced from the twins back the way Ichigo and Musubi had left. "However..." His eyes narrowed as several thoughts crossed his mind, turning back to see the state of Hibiki's clothing, which was torn around a circular hole, like she had been impaled on something and the wound had simply healed over leaving a perfectly round rip. "Hibiki." His train of thought broken, he instead focused on the two girls. "Take Hikari back to your Ashikabi, this is no place for you two to be when the authorities arrive, I doubt Minaka likes throwing out hush money every time a Sekirei is found by the police."

"Fuck you Homura." The girl groaned, gabbing her sister, her stomach still swirling. After she had steadied herself she hopped up to the roof the two had been on before leaping to the next, disappearing from Homura's view.

The silver haired man ignored the two injured Sekirei to stare after the one who had injured them. To think, a human who could defeat not one but two Sekirei in quick succession. And that final attack he used, it reminded him of a fist type Sekirei attack.

Homura shook his head at that thought, no human could use an attack like that, he had probably just been imagining it.

Turning away, the Guardian of the Sekirei leapt to the top of a nearby building, leaving the same way the lightning twins had left. Moment's later a patrol car would pull up to the scene to find untold destruction and not a soul in sight.

_**-ooo-**_

Musubi had been having a rough day. Not only did she have to run from the lightning twins but now she was being dragged behind a man who was easily as strong and fast as she was. She could feel the man's power and since he was still in front of her he was just as fast if not more so than she was. Only her constantly positive attitude kept her chipper in the current situation.

It was nearly dusk by the time Ichigo stopped. He had put as much distance as he could between himself and the two lightning twins as possible, ending up on the west side of town. Now that he had time to really take a breather he glanced over his shoulder at the girl he had saved, who surprisingly had remained behind him at an equal speed. He assumed that whoever those two lightning users were that this girl was one of them as well, which would explain why they were after her. Maybe Musubi was a traitor to their group, or maybe it was some kind of death game. Ichigo remembered clearly that Musubi said she wouldn't fight them 'yet.' Which meant that she would be willing to fight them after a certain condition had been met.

Ichigo's surprisingly sharp mind began formulating several possibilities for what that condition could be. What most people forgot when they fought the ex-Shinigami was that the man was surprisingly bright, consistently scoring top marks in school even during his time as a substitute soul reaper. He was a very analytical person even then, picking the brains of every fighter he'd come across, which showed in his potential which even Aizen had complemented him on. He had the intelligence and the skills to fully nurture that potential. It had only come to a screeching halt when he had lost his soul reaper powers. Sure, he missed his Shihakusho and the reassuring weight of Zangetsu, but his new abilities as a Fullbringer made up that lacking and it had helped him in the long run these last ten years on his own, where his mind had been honed to a razor edge.

But, try as he might, he couldn't come up with a reason that would fit the situation he was just in. It was a frustrating feeling, not having all the clues but he had to make do with what he currently had. A trait he had picked up from working with some less than savory characters in his past, the only upside to that kind of dirty work was the he protected a few innocents in the process.

Now it was getting dark and he sure as hell didn't want to sleep outside any time soon. He'd had to do that for an extended period of time when his last job literally died on top of him. Pissing off a gang of Yakuza tended to end his employment and employer very quickly. Digging through his pockets, he pulled a dozen or so thousand yen notes, all that was left of the money he had swiped from his previous boss on the way out. Hey, the guy was dead, he didn't have any use for it anymore.

Twelve thousand yen could probably rent a decent room in a substandard guest house for a week tops, but this was Shinto Teito, a popular tourist trap and consumer magnet. He'd be lucky if he could even find a vacancy, which left him with hostels and an apartment.

Personally he'd need an apartment since he never trusted hostels after watching that damn movie as a child...**(*)**

Ichigo shivered a bit as he continued to walk through the streets, Musubi still behind him. Several minutes later he'd found a newspaper that had some listings for apartment vacancies, if he played his cards right, he could probably get a temp job there while he looked for a more permanent solution.

Scanning the listings he found one that was nearby and was relatively cheap in the west part of town. Dragging the girl behind him he made his way to that section of the city.

A few hours later found Ichigo sitting in a small second floor apartment just big enough for two people. It had really been a lucky break on his part. The manager of the apartment complex was renting it out for a fair price, but Ichigo didn't have enough money even then. That's when Ichigo noticed that there was graffiti on the outside of the walls and that many of the appliances and vending machines around the place had been busted open and trashed.

When questioned on this, the elderly manager said that there was a local street gang that used this part of town as their turf. The tended to tag and destroy vending machines to steal the money out of them.

That gave Ichigo the perfect excuse. He had offered his services as both a security guard to keep the apartment complex safe while he stayed there and a repair man if things ever did indeed get broken into in exchange for staying there.

The man had been skeptical at first about Ichigo's ability but when Ichigo had proceeded to lift Musubi up off the ground with one hand in a show of strength the man had been both surprised and ultimately convinced. Ichigo later apologized to the Sekirei girl when they had finally settled into the new apartment.

Now that Ichigo had a place to stay he wanted to get settled in as quickly as possible. The apartment provided regular amenities like bedding, kitchen, bathrooms etc. The laundry rooms were on the first floor so it was only a minor walk for that. Not like he had anything more than the clothing on his back regardless. He'd need to do some shopping tomorrow and get a few things for himself.

He blinked when he realized that Musubi was technically staying with him as well. He'd need to get her some new clothing as well it seemed.

Speaking of Musubi, he had been burning with questions all day about the girl. Now that he wasn't in battle he could indeed feel Reiryoka coming from the girl much like it had been from the lightning twins. When he asked her about that he was surprised by how straightforward she was.

"So you're a Sekirei." He asked at length, with the girl bobbing her head in agreement, the quick motion doing wonderful things with her cleavage. "And you're looking for your Ashikabi?" He continued, drawing another nod from the girl. "And what exactly are those two things again?" The way she had explained things had confused him more than they had answered his questions.

"A Sekirei is the one who is destined to guide their Ashikabi to the higher sky above." Musubi replied, a slight blush on her face. "And an Ashikabi is the person who we Sekirei are born to serve, our special one that we're supposed to find." Musubi's face fell. "I've been searching so long for mine, I just wish I could find them."

That was a more definitive answer for Ichigo. So these Sekirei were a servant race of some sort, and they had to find their master somewhere in the world, the one who would essentially be their mate.

Curious, Ichigo reached a hand out to Musubi, touching her shoulder lightly while filtering a little bit of his Reiryoko into her body, not enough to really do anything but enough that he could get a feel for her own Reiryoka. It was something of a habit he'd developed when he fully embraced his Fullbringer side. Since he was now using hollow power's he could essentially leech Reiryoka from things and make it his. He didn't doubt that if he had been at full Fullbringer power he could have absorbed the lightning attacks of those two other Sekirei girls easily. But this was more of a sensing technique to find out more about the feel of a person's Reiryoka. Their emotions, basic thought's and just the overall 'feel' of that person in general. It was so he could grasp just how people felt about what they were currently thinking, and Ichigo wanted to find out more about these Sekirei, particularly what kind of relationship she had with her Ashikabi.

He had promised to protect her, a promise not made lightly and if she was to be with her Ashikabi, he had to know exactly who and what that was.

The feelings he was leeching from Musubi surprised him. The girl was pure, overly so. She had a pure white soul, not a single taint on it at all and her innocence was beyond even that. She was so innocent it bordered on idiotic. But above all that, the feelings this girl had for her unknown Ashikabi stunned the man. Almost all her love was directed at this person, even if she didn't know who they were. For a Sekirei, her Ashikabi was basically her soul mate. A person that could do no wrong in her eyes. Strangely enough If he had to compare her to someone he would have said she was like an even more innocent version of Orihime, the same ditzyness and unconditional love applied to them both in slightly different ways.

Thinking of his distant friend caused a pain to shoot through his chest which in turn broke the connection between himself and Musubi. He would have apologized for his rude touch had Musubi not initiated an even more intimate contact.

Ichigo was genuinely surprised when he felt the girls hand on his chest. Looking up the orange haired man nearly gasped at the girls condition.

Musubi's eyes were wide, her pupils dilated and her breathing ragged. Her cheeks were a bloody crimson blush that stood out heavily against her peach colored skin. The girl swallowed sharply, her lips opening just slightly. "W-what was that...just now?" She stared at Ichigo's hand, the one that had just been on her shoulder, in open shock.

Ichigo's mind was moving a hundred miles an hour as the busty Sekirei proceeded to shove him onto his back, straddling his legs in a way that both scared and aroused the man. He would have pushed her away had she not said what she did next.

"My Ashikabi, I finally found you."

Ichigo froze, his muscles locking up in shock. He was this girls chosen person? She was destined to serve him? A deep warmth rose from his pocket as his fullbring flared to life. Almost seeming to agree with those thoughts.

He didn't notice the girl in front of him lick her lips, swallowing heavily as she moved in for a kiss. He didn't notice the girl plant her lips on his. He only noticed what had just happened when he felt a large surge of Reiryoka pass between his lips and past hers which culminated in the the girls back exploding in a bright flash of light as a strange crest appeared, hovering over a spot just blow her neck.

Then it happened. A pair of ethereal pinkish white wings appeared behind her, flowing out like sentient things to crash against the walls of the room. Only, instead of it destroying the walls, the wings seemed to bend and conform to them, flowing around the edges of the room.

Musubi's lips broke contact with his, her body arcing back in ecstasy while she held her shuddering body. To Ichigo it looked like the woman had just experienced a mind blowing orgasm or something of the like, but it was what he felt from his Reiryoka still in her body that shocked him to his core.

Love. Unconditional and unquestioning, this woman loved him with every ounce of her being. He had seen the love that she held for her Ashikabi when she hadn't known who they were. It was almost like a childish crush compared to the feeling of love she held for him now. It was...humbling in a way... Just what the heck had he gotten himself into?

When the light died down and Musubi came down from her high, she got within inches of Ichigo's face, grabbing his cheeks in her palms. "I am your Sekirei and you are my Ashikabi." She kissed him on his forehead before placing her head on his chest. "Forever and ever."

Ichigo meanwhile was just trying to get his brain back in order from the massive emotional discharge Musubi had dumped on him. Shaking his head slightly to let the lingering ghostly feelings of love escape him he focused his attention back on Musubi... who had passed out on top of him.

Then a rumbling so massive it nearly shook the walls of the room erupted from the young girl's stomach.

Ichigo sweatdropped at that, it wasn't so much that she just made the noise, it was more along the lines of how the hell he was going to feed her when the place was only stocked with appliances and furniture?

It took Ichigo a minute to remember that the apartment manager mentioned that there were vending machines on the first floor and another minute to get out of Musubi's vice like grip. Even when she was unconscious she was unusually strong, hell she had nearly ripped his arm out of socket when she had tried to run off with him during his fight with the lightning twins.

Once at the vending machine he was surprised how fully stocked several of them were, most of the food in them was junk food or stuff that could stay in an un-refrigerated place for long periods of time. That really didn't bother Ichigo as he stuffed a few hundred yen through one of them. Grabbing a bunch of snack cakes and rushing off to feed what he assumed was a black hole by the sound of her stomach.

Fifteen minutes later Musubi was happily mulching on one of the last few snack cakes as Ichigo went over what the heck had just happened to him.

Ok first he had to sift through the emotion dump she had given him, then go over the thoughts and memories that had come with them. _'Simple enough.' _ He thought to himself. Ok, apparently he just became this girls Ashikabi. An Ashikabi is basically a Sekirei's destined person. From what he could gather from the girls emotions and a few of her thoughts during the 'Winging' as her thoughts called it. He had essentially just became this girls 'mate.'

Ichigo shivered at that thought. _'Did...did I just get into some sort of crazy marriage ritual or something?"_ Ok calm down, one step at a time. He HAD made a promise to protect the girl and from what she said about her fighting other Sekirei and Ashikabi him being her Ashikabi would allow him to protect her that much more easily. Ugh, this was happening too fast. He had just met the girl for god's sake.

His Fullbring began to heat up again, seemingly chastising him in it's own subtle way.

Ichigo sighed as he felt the vague emotions coming from his Fullbring. He still had something of his inner hollow left over after he had lost his powers and those manifested in the power of his Fullbring during his fight with Xcution. So maybe since his hollow had survived, a small piece of Zangetsu might have survived in his Fullbring as well and was guiding him even now. It would explain why he could still use his Getsuga Tensho and still send souls to the Soul Society via Konsō. He wasn't a Soul Reaper by any means but he definitely had some powers left that were bleeding over into his Fullbring, and whatever was connected to those powers were pushing him to do this.

But to have such a powerful and unconditional love practically given to him, to be someone's special person, practically destined to be with them...

_I curse you Ichigo, to live your life hated, that your destiny be stopped here_

Tsukishima's words echoed in Ichigo's mind. A tense swallow forced it's way past a lump in the ex-Shinigami's throat as his eyes widened. _'Unconditional love, given to me.'_ Ichigo grit his teeth. He had tried in the past to create a relationship with people. But every time Tsukishima's curse seemed to follow him. Women never seemed to be interested in him and he could never make friends because he spent just as much time working as he did running from his past. Whether by their hand or his, people always seemed to be at arms length with him.

But now... Love had been forced on him, pushing it's way past Tsukishima's words. Even now he could feel the connection he had to Musubi, he could feel the love and affection she had for him. She wasn't at arms length. No, she was sitting right next to him, the radiant and loving warmth basically pouring off of her.

A small part of Ichigo hoped that this feeling would last, that it wouldn't fade like the rest of the relationships he had tried to start. After ten years of superficial human contact, it felt good to have this connection, it was this feeling along with the badge in his pocket rising and lowering in temperature, almost as if it was agreeing with his revelation that kept him from freaking out about the whole situation. For the moment he was just basking in the feelings he was experiencing and hoping that this wasn't some cruel joke on fate's part, because right now he wasn't in any mood for her shit.

"TADAAAAH!"

Ichigo's heart nearly leapt from his chest as the TV behind him switched on and fanfare music began playing. Snapping around quickly he was treated to the sight of a middle aged man in a white suit and cape staring back at him, his glare covered glasses concealing his eyes from the Fullbringer. Moving closer Ichigo inspected the TV, thinking that maybe it had just turned on by itself. That thought was soon squashed when the man addressed him.

"Hello Dear boy, You've just become partnered with a Sekirei I see, Congratulations!" The white haired man nodded a greeting ever so slightly at Ichigo... Speaking of hair.

"Dude." Ichigo deadpanned. "What the hell is wrong with your hair." seriously who the hell wore their hair like that? It looked like his hair had just exploded from his head is random directions

The white haired man blinked, or at least Ichigo thought he blinked as he couldn't see his eyes behind his glasses. "I don't see why that should be an issue Ichigo Kurosaki."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed slightly at the man. "And just how do you know my name, who are you?"

"Professor!" Musubi leapt over to where Ichigo was sitting in front of the TV.

Ichigo glanced over at Musubi cautiously. "You know this guy?"

Musubi flashed one of her smiles that seemed to light up the room. "Of course! He's my professor and the company president.

"If you don't recognize who I am." The white haired man replied smugly. " You should really watch the news more often."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed further at the blatant disrespect the man was showing him. _'Let's see, Ability to use a regular TV in ways that I've never seen before, company president, aloof wise ass who's thinks he's better than everyone else, Shinto Teito.'_

"You're Minaka Hiroto, President and CEO of MBI." Ichigo glared at the man. Yeah, he'd heard of him, how could he not when he was looking for work in the man's city. "Just how did you find me so quickly?" Seriously, he had only winged Musubi like 20 minutes ago.

"There's nothing that I don't know dear boy." He replied smugly, chuckling a couple times just to really get on his nerves. Yeah, these kinds of people just pushed all of the wrong buttons for Ichigo. He reminded him too much of Gin and Aizen to be a good thing.

"The Sekirei Plan." Minaka continued. "That's the name of the game that you've become a major participant in."

Oh great and he want's to play a game too. This wasn't filling him with untold amounts of dread or anything... "Are their any rules to this so called game?" That was one thing Ichigo wanted to know about right from the get go.

"Ah, straight to the point I see." The man adjusted his glasses. "Yes, there are several rules that you have to follow. First, do you know what the two of you are?"

A twitch appeared on his brow. "Apparently, she's a Sekirei and I'm an Ashikabi and this is some sort of tournament that pit's Sekirei against each other" Ichigo growled, his hatred of the man growing by the second. He was treating him like a small child when he was anything but. The Fullbringer would have bet his left nut that the white haired bastard hadn't even seen what true combat was like, to stare down an opponent as you took their life. To watch as the light left their eyes and their bodies grew cold. And the bastard had the audacity to call him a child? He wasn't innocent enough for it. Musubi maybe, but him? Not a chance in hell.

"Ohh so the grades from your old school weren't lying, you do have a brain up there."

Ok scratch that, he didn't hate this man, he loathed him with every shred of his being. The bastard actually insulted his intelligence even when he knew... Ichigo frowned. If Minaka had records from his time in school then he probably knew about his reputation, false construction though it was and that left a bad taste in the Fullbringer's mouth. Not only because the man was connected enough get that information but thorough enough to get those records in less than an hour. That made him dangerous, more dangerous than Ichigo gave him credit for.

"One other thing." Minaka spoke evenly, a barely hidden threat in his voice. "The Sekirei Plan is a highly confidential project." He steepled his fingers as he leaned back in the gaudy chair that Ichigo had just noticed the man sitting in. Continuing, the man's voice rose slightly and it took on a more threatening tone as he spoke. "If you tell anyone who isn't apart of this anything about the Sekirei plan, MBI will come after you with all of it's resources."

Ichigo openly scowled at the man. "Is that a threat?"

"No my dear boy." The man chuckled, his voice changing to a jovial laugh, that laugh turned deadly serious as he fixed his gaze. "It's a promise."

A tense silence filled the air as the two glared at each other, Ichigo was the first to break the staring contest. Not that he lost the will to glare at him. No, he would have continued wrestling wills with the uppity bastard all night if he had to. Right now he had better things to do with his time. Now he wanted to know the one question that had been bugging him since Minaka had called his Sekirei Plan a 'Game'

"One last question."Ichigo spoke smoothly, ignoring his rising urge to strangle the bastard. "You called the Sekirei Plan a 'game.' From what I've seen this is some sort of tournament or battle royal. Those types of 'games' usually have a prize awarded to the winners." Ichigo's eyes grew calculating as Minaka's eyebrows rose.

"That's quite perceptive my boy." The man grinned, the whites of his teeth showing. "Yes there is indeed a prize. It is the destiny for the Sekirei to fight and once you've fought and fought and fought until you're the only one left, Only then will you be given permission to ascend to the heavens with your Sekirei. The Ashikabi who ascends to the heavens with their Sekirei will hold the fate of the entire world in their hands!"

Oh, that didn't sound completely insane or anything now did it? However two words caught Ichigo's interest from that entire spiel.

Destiny and Fate

His Fullbring started heating up again, almost as if it were nodding to him. A small change in temperature gave him the impression that it was being deadly serious. As deadly serious as a spiritual paperweight could be anyway...

It was destiny for Sekirei to do battle, those that ascend would have the fate of the world in their hands. Ichigo remembered his promise to protect Musubi, something that his pride wouldn't allow him to go back on, now that he was her Ashikabi his pride in her defense had only grown.

Then his mind wandered to the other of the two.

Fate. In his mind, there was only one thing that could defy fate like what Minaka was speaking of... "Is the prize some sort of wish then?"

Minaka's eyebrows rose. "I've never heard it put that way before but essentially yes, you could call it a that. A wish that defy's fate."

A wish. Something that would fit the desire of the one wishing it regardless of fate's whims. Allowing him to control the fate of the world if he so desired. Gears started turning in Ichigo's head, if the prize at the end of the Sekirei plan was a fate defying wish, then...

_I curse you Ichigo, to live your life hated, that your destiny be stopped here_

Ichigo's face hardened, his eyes set in determination. He was tired of running, tired of living in the now rather than hoping for the future. He had reached his breaking point then went past even that years ago and now he had something that just might piece that life back together in the palm of his hands. The bones in his knuckles cracked and popped as his hand clenched. _'Fuck fate and fuck destiny. If the Sekirei are destined to fight then I'll just protect as many as I can and if my fate is cursed then I'll just defy it. Challenges like this haven't stopped me before'_ He thought back to the previous battles in his life. Fighting against his first hollow, Grand Fisher, his first Gillian, all the Soul Reapers he faced during Rukia's rescue, The Bount, The Arrancar, The Zanpakutō Rebellion, Aizen, Xcution. _'They haven't stopped me yet and they sure as hell wont stop me now!'_ Ichigo felt the temperature of the badge in his pocket skyrocket, warming the lower half of his body as it gave off a slight hum of approval.

There was a chance for him to get his friends and family back, he'd be damned if he let this chance slip away.

"Well, that's all the time I have, more important business presses." Minaka let out that creepy grin again, waving cheerfully to the two people in the room. "Goodbye No.88 Musubi and you as well Ichigo Kurosaki. Goodbye and good luck." The TV turned itself off, leaving the room in silence.

In that silence the words of advice Zangetsu had given Ichigo back when he was still unsure of himself floated back to the forefront of his mind

_"Ichigo. Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate."_

Ichigo sighed, closing his eyes. He'd been running from his problems for too long. Staying bitter at the past, he knew he had to face it sooner or later and now was as good a time as any. _'Abandon my fear. Move forward and never stop. Don't pull back. Don't hesitate.'_ Taking a deep shuddering breath and exhaling, the Ex-Shinigami calmed himself. Then, with an almost audible snap his eyelids flashed open, revealing the calm calculating gaze of a man who had a goal in mind and the iron will to complete it. His fate may be cursed but he sure as hell wasn't going to let it stop him from moving forward. Not anymore.

_**-ooo-**_

_**My creative juices are just flowing ALL OVER this story muahahahaahaaa.**_

_**(*) The movie Hostel, if you've watched it you know the reason why ANYONE would be... hesitant to stay at one of them. I watched it when I was 13 *Shiver* Fuck Hostels, fuck them with a Space Marine chainsword. ...There's also a reference to SAW in the conversation with Minaka**_

_**Speaking of Minaka. I wanted him to seem a bit more sinister in this chapter than in canon since that is the first impression of the man that Ichigo get's. He'll be insane and goofy as the story progresses but I wanted to stress that Minaka is just as much a threat to Ichigo as everyone else is in the Sekirei Plan.**_

_**I feel happy about this chapter. I think I channeled the return of Ichigo's fiery will into this chapter rather well. I hope I made it read as epic as it felt to write it. And I know I'm going to get messages for this so I'll point this out now. **_

_**The reason Ichigo is overcoming his ten year old funk so quickly is *because* it's a ten year old funk. He's still gonna be really bitter about it but time heals all wounds as they say. Or in this case it dampens them enough to allow for an empathetic Fullbring that's keyed into his very soul, A winged Sekirei with a 'Warrior of Love Complex' dumping her emotions through their link which is also keyed into said soul, and a possibility of him regaining his friends and family pushing that 'ten year old funk' aside in the face of overwhelming fuzzies. Since he'll be getting more Sekirei as the story progresses, he'll become a bit more assured with himself and his decisions as time goes on.**_

_**However, that doesn't mean Ichigo won't still be reminded from time to time about his curse, Minaka or someone else who's in the know and wanting to get at Ichigo's craw will see to that. But I never really started this story with an angsty Ichigo in mind. The whole point of multiple Sekirei for him is to drown out his bitterness. Hell I just can't see Ichigo as angsty for long periods of time. He canonically jumps back from practically everything, he just needs one shred of hope and he comes back like a badass. Which is basically what's happening here. If you came here to see angsty Ichigo then wait a few chapters, let the high wear off for him and let a few of his good fortunes go south and he'll be brooding again trying to figure out how to get out of the jam he's found himself in. After all you can't have a semi-godlike character injected into another series without throwing the guy a few curveballs and limiting him here and there.**_

_**For example. Since Ichigo, when using his Fullbring's FULL power (Including his Fullbring 'sacrifice') is on par with his initial Vizard Bankai self he's definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with but he'll be limited to using that in dire straights or special circumstances since he doesn't want everyone and their mother realizing he's not quite as normal as the boy/man next door should be, Hot Bodacious alien harem aside...**_

_**So, like his fight with the lightning twins, he'll be using his Fullbring to do crazy stupid things because that's one of the main reasons why I made this story. So I could explore all the wonderful ways Ichigo could fuck with the laws of nature, That and to set him up with a bevy of bodaciously big breasted babes... in BIKINI'S, BABY! BOOYAH!**_

_**Ok...I'm out of sensible B words for describing sexy sistahs in sequence...**_

_**Ok, Now I'm just being an idiot -_-**_

_**Till next time**_

_**Ciao**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Ok I need to answer this first and foremost since several people have asked. I thought I had explained it pretty good in the first chapter but I guess not.**_

_**What Tsukishima did was basically what's known as a Character Assassination. Which is a **__"Deliberate and sustained process that aims to destroy the credibility and reputation of a person, institution, social group, or nation." __**Essentially its a smear campaign. Tsukishima used his Fullbring to basically rewrite the memories of everyone that knew Ichigo. In my story Fullbringer's have their normal powers, and then they have their final power, something like a Bankai for them and instead of them following what their pride dictates when using their Fullbring they use the opposite. **_

_**In Tsukishima's case, Instead of him adding or removing himself from peoples memories, he does the opposite and adds or subtracts other people from EVERYONE ELSES memory or in other words anyone who knew Ichigo. However just like all final powers they have a drawback. For Tsukishima he had to 'sacrifice' his memory. Essentially erasing his memory from the mind of everyone who knew him. That was something that went against his pride. his 'Sacrifice.' **_

_**For someone like Ginjo it would be using Bankai, which is a soul reaper power. Ginjo in my story and from what I've seen in canon detests soul reapers so it's an insult to his pride to use soul reaper powers. However to use his fullbring to its fullest he has to use his Bankai. Which is his 'Sacrifice' **_

_**They are sacrificing their 'pride' to power their attacks, since Fullbring is a power based on the pride you hold for the object you're using. The object is basically the symbol in which you take pride in. For instance Ichigo takes pride in his soul reaper badge because it symbolizes his time as a soul reaper, as a 'Guardian' of the innocent.**_

_**As for what Tsukishima made everyone think? Anything and everything, I answered this in a PM to a curious reviewer.**_

_"Imagine a father seeing his son commit crimes, murder someone and get away with it. Imagine a friend who betrayed your trust with your worst secrets. Imagine someone defiling the most priceless artifacts that Soul Society has and gets away with it."_

_**(Those are just examples but you see where I'm going with it) cont.**_

_"Tsukishima cursed Ichigo by making people think he did something horrible, their minds creating the worst thing they can think of at the time. And they wont try to kill or arrest Ichigo because they either still hold feelings for him or think he couldn't be caught. Compare it to a trial where a murderer walks free because of lack of evidence. Everyone knows he did it but they cant pin him with it._

_And even if their thoughts don't coincide with other accounts of what Ichigo did, they'll all just assume he did ALL of it. They don't need evidence because in their mind he was already guilty, there just isn't any evidence to convict him._

_Like I said in the first chapter, it is the most powerful character assassination ability in existence. Even I was surprised at the Idea when I first wrote it. Tsukishima COULD have just used the reverse of his ability and erased Ichigo from everyone's memories, but that still left physical evidence of Ichigo being who he is. Like written reports in soul society or family pictures. and he could eventually build those bonds back up. Tsukishima didn't do that. Instead he chose to something much much worse to Ichigo."_

_**That's basically what happened.**_

_**Also for the reviewer Benikaze no shi: I use what's known as Third Person Limited in this story. It's basically more freedom than First Person, but it has less freedom than Third Person Omniscient. I slip between TPL and TPO often to suit my needs. I know it's a bit creaky and some people don't like that sort of thing but I feel it fits how I write more comfortably. Although I do love writing in First Person sometimes because I like to be part of the action. In some cases this is in a literal sense as First person is usually the POV that people write themselves into a story as an OC or Self Insert. Though there are stories that use first person POV for established canon characters that the Author only want's the protagonists viewpoint realized. To each their own I say. I like how I write and that's all that matters in the long run.**_

_**For the guest who's spell checker fucked up: Zangetsu may show up in one form or another at some point but I'm not sure when, I've really only got the story planned out till about chapter 6, I'm working on it as I go :/ The one thing I will say is that Ichigo isn't a soul reaper and most likely never will be again while he's alive. Right now he's a Fullbringer and proud of it.**_

_**Douglas Baily 7946: That's a secret 3, However I will say you'll never guess who it is... Well. You could guess I guess, there are only 108 of them so you're bound to get it right at least once if you go down the line, BUT I AIN'T TELLING!**_

_**She'll be getting winged in the next chapter though I can tell you that much :3**_

_**Now that that's out of the way.**_

_**Fic o' the day: **_Who in the world is Menma Uzumaki by vanorkt _** A cute litte deuce-shot story, two chapters of Hinata and RTN Hinata fighting over Naruto. There's a citris fruit (lol) in the second chapter so be warned, M-rated for a reason.**_

_**Song/vid of the day: There's going to be three today because fuck yeah! **_Jeff Williams - Red Like Roses _** Fucking love this song and the video that goes with it. **_IOSYS - 背徳の蕾 _**This song is sexy as hell, DnB ftw. **_Season 2 Finale of ERB Rasputin VS Stalin _** Because fuck you that's why. Gorbachev was awesome and Putin kills it in his last three lines. Period.**_

_**Word/s of the day: **_Kakorrhaphiophobia n. – fear of failure _** There's quite a few Kaka carrot cakes out there isn't there?**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach or Sekirei. I do however own a package of pecan pinwheels, it's sitting right in front of me, taunting me. Clearly it doesn't know who it's messing with. HULK SMAAAA- *call lost***_

_**-ooo-**_

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

_Flashback_

**Narration/machines talking**

**"Hollow talking"**

_**'Hollow Thinking'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 3: Week's Paid Vacation**_

A week went by in a blur for Ichigo, though a few interesting things had occurred in that time. One of the first of them happened the very night Minaka had contacted them. A man from MBI had delivered a box of clothing to Ichigo's door and on top of the box was a card that the man had said was good for a million yen. When Ichigo asked the man, he merely stated that it was given to each Sekirei when they entered the game, Musubi had forgotten hers. Ichigo turned to stare at the girl behind him dryly. Yeah, he could see her doing that. But that wasn't the most important thing that happened that night. What happened later was even more important as Ichigo sat down to scan the city for the competition. What he found surprised him.

***Flashback***

Ichigo sat in Seiza, breathing in and out calmly. To Musubi, who was watching him do this it seemed like he was meditating but that wasn't what the Fullbringer was doing. No, he was relaxing so he could pull off something he hadn't done since he had lost his Shinigami powers.

He was trying to get a fix of all the spiritual presences in the city. Ichigo wasn't nearly as good as someone like Uryu who could just casually check his surroundings like a sonar. Ichigo had never had that kind of control over his Reiryoka. Sure, he could check his immediate surroundings like with the hollow earlier and his fullbring brought a measure of control but the man still hadn't really had that much practice with scanning an entire city. Which was why he was sitting still and focusing

_'Let's see.' _Ichigo's eyes fluttered for a moment. _ 'One, two, three.' _Taking a few moments to count out the number of high sources of Reiryoka he finished his count on ninety eight. Musubi had told him there were one hundred and eight Sekirei in the game, that meant that there were already ten knocked out of the running. That was both good and bad news. Good news that there was less competition to fight and bad news that there was less competition to fight.

That meant there weren't as many people they had to fight but inversely it also meant trouble would be more likely to find them.

Idly Ichigo noticed that there seemed to be a certain level of classification in spiritual power among the Sekirei because he could distinctly feel the different levels of most of them. He put the majority of them around third to fourth seat in power, while a smaller minority were around second seat. And then there were the rookie captain class, of which there were about a dozen or so. He also noticed that there seemed to be several large concentrations of Sekirei in all but one of the cardinal directions of the city. But there were two signatures in particular... One was in the center of the city near MBI's headquarters, the other was in the north. Both of those were experienced and easily very powerful captain class Sekirei.

Hoping never to run into those two Ichigo then focused on another important thing he wanted to find out. Namely what level of Sekirei Musubi was.

Focusing on his Sekirei he found that Musubi's Reiryoka curiously fluctuated around the lieutenant to rookie captain level. But that wasn't what really got the Fullbringer's attention. What got his attention was the secondary source of Reiryoka inside of the girls body.

When he questioned her, he wasn't quite ready to hear just exactly what had been done to her.

"So you were captured then experimented on?" Ichigo frowned, like hell that was ever happening again, Sekirei might not be human, but the ghost like whispering of emotions coming through the link that he felt he had with Musubi were human and anything that felt as much compassion and love as she did was human enough in his eyes.

"Yeah, but Yume-sama saved me." Musubi smiled happily. "She gave me her Tama and saved my life. She's really an amazing person."

Ichigo lip twitched up in a small smile as well. He could feel the girls joy even now. He had asked what she knew about Sekirei in general and understood that the Tama was basically the 'soul' for a Sekirei. What Yume did was an extremely noble sacrifice in his eyes and all it meant was that Musubi had another soul inside her, that brought her into an amazing parallel with himself and his inner hollow. Except Musubi's inner Sekirei wasn't trying to swallow her soul and take over her body.

Or was it?

Ichigo shook his head, that would be highly unlikely since Yume had saved Musubi's life to begin with. Also he didn't sense any ill will from the second source of Reiryoka, in fact he felt a similar feeling of love that he felt from Musubi. It was an odd feeling really and he blamed it partially on the way his Reiryoka had reacted in Musubi's body. For some reason when his Reiryoka and her's connected it acted like a reaction accelerator. When he asked her about it she had mentioned that she was already reacting to him a little bit before he had touched her shoulder but then when his energy entered her system it caused her to spike, which resulted in her near instant reaction.

Ichigo didn't know what to think of that really. The pragmatist in him thought to use that as a way to wing more Sekirei quickly and protect as many as he could, but then the honor bound man in him pointed out that method was little more than rape in a sense, forcing the girl to react to him so he could take advantage. It didn't help when Musubi said that winging could be an involuntary process if an Ashikabi forced himself on them.

There were still pressure marks in the wooden table where he had dug his fingers in anger, that someone would actually do such a thing. They were lower than scum in his eyes, to trample upon something as wonderful as this bond. Hell, he had winged Musubi for only a few hours and he already felt better than he had in YEARS. There was no way in hell he was letting some asshole force wing a Sekirei while he had the ability to stop them.

But right now he needed to sleep. He had been up for almost a week using only his Reiryoka induced meditative state that absorbed ambient Reishi. But now with using his Reiryoka in battle and the winging of Musubi, he felt drained enough that one night of meditation wouldn't cut it. He needed to sleep, and damn the dreams if they came.

The only problem...

There was only one futon...

The room may have been big enough for two but the room was most likely a couple's room, so one bed between the both of them... And Musubi didn't have any nightwear, so she had to sleep naked except for a pair of panties... they really needed to go shopping tomorrow...

The first half hour of that had been the most awkward time in his life, just surpassing the first time he had actually checked out Tatsuki naked in the shower when he had hit puberty. They both took showers together back then after they had finished their martial arts practice... Yeah, that was certainly an interesting week before they finally stopped doing that together, never mind that she was flat as a board back then and Musubi had a rack that was gifted by the gods...

Shaking his head, Ichigo stared at the sleeping Musubi on his right. She had snuggled under his arm and was practically fused with his chest. She made small mewling noises as she cuddled his side and it drew a small smirk to the man's lips. It was probably the cutest thing he'd ever seen, even surpassing Orihime's puppy dog eyes that she had used on him occasionally.

Again, the memories of his friends made Ichigo's heart ache but then Musubi snorted in her sleep, shifting a bit to get comfortable, breaking his attention away from the memories and onto the girl in his arms particularly on the girls massive chest pressed into his side. This would have been far more awkward had the link between them not been there and for once he was grateful there was something connected to his soul, feeding him random emotions. At least this one wasn't trying to devour his mind and take over his body, he was also glad he didn't have to deal with a color swapped psychopath Ichigo yelling at him in his head.

Relaxing with the comfortable weight in his arms, Ichigo dozed off into a dreamless slumber. It would be daylight in a few hours but that didn't matter, in the morning he'd soon wake up from the best night of sleep he'd had in almost ten years.

***Flashback end***

Ichigo yawned as he got up from the bed, extracting himself from the sleeping Musubi. Like the last half dozen times before the girl had started pawing at the space where his body had been moments before. At least this time she hadn't had his arm sandwiched between her breasts like the first time he'd woken up with her beside him. That had been an uncomfortable moment for him, and any effort on his part to extricate himself proved fruitless as the girl was just as strong unconscious as she was awake.

Yeah, his reaction to that on the first morning would have been priceless had anyone been watching...

***Flashback, Oh aren't I evil? Muahahaha***

Ichigo's eye's slowly opened, he was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling in an unfamiliar bed. Well, that wasn't as strange for most people since Ichigo was more or less a wanderer. What was really confusing was the odd weight on his right side that...oh.

Memories of yesterday floated back into his consciousness as his mind reasserted itself over his body. As feeling began to return to his limbs a strange softness seemed to be wrapped around his arm that he had never felt before.

Ichigo blinked, then turned his head to see Musubi had moved during the night, and had somehow extricated his arm out from under her to where she could hug the thing, hot dogging his arm between her breasts.

Now Ichigo may have been a virgin, he may also have been a bit of a celibate hero at times, but he was still a man dammit and like all men who had a beautiful woman's breasts around their arm, Ichigo reacted like all men would in that situation.

The Fullbringer cleared his throat, The blush on his cheeks and his tightening underwear tipping off anyone in the room of how arousing that display was... and speaking of underwear.

Knowing from feel that his underwear were on Ichigo lifted his head slightly and sighed in relief. Panties, check. Ok nothing had wandered during the night except for his arm and Musubi's breasts, that was something at least. He really didn't want to start groping her in his sleep, that would have been uncomfortable to try to explain to Musubi seeing as she had no idea what that would even mean. The girl was just too innocent... not to mention she had no modesty to speak of, hell she'd stripped out of her gi last night like it was natural for her to expose herself to the world.

Again he thanked whatever gods above for emotional and spiritual links that made him more comfortable around the woman or awkward would have had a new definition in the dictionary and his ugly mug would have been the picture for it.

Sighing, he got up out of bed, spending a good five minutes extricating himself from the girls death grip. Once he was clear he noticed the girl had a frown on her face in her sleep as she reached for the body that was no longer there. Ichigo was actually flattered that the girl felt so comfortable around him that she would feel the loss of his presence next to her. Seriously, the speed at which Sekirei accepted their Ashikabi was just crazy but the Fullbringer wasn't complaining, it actually felt nice to wake up next to someone in the morning, he'd wanted that for so long that he'd almost given up hope of having a chance to experience it. Little wishes paid off in the long run it seemed, now he just needed to focus on the bigger ones.

But first. He was going to milk that MBI card for all it was worth, a bit of shopping was in order.

***Flashback end***

Yeah, Shopping. Ichigo groaned, his feet were still sore from all the walking he had to go through that day to find things for Musubi and himself, not only that but what had happened at the lingerie store... A blush bloomed on the man's face as a small drop of blood flowed from his nose. Yeah, that had been stimulating.

***Flashback***

"Here we are... the most important stop." Musubi had been given a box of her Sekirei clothing, but no underwear had come with it. Ichigo intended to fix that problem, as he stared through the window of the shop, the lacy nothing that was all but nonexistent on the mannequin out front did little to calm his nerves or reassure him of anything. He had never liked shopping. Like most men, he went in, got what he needed and stayed the hell away from the women's section of the store like his life depended on it. The only men who braved that danger were the married men and the men who were whipped by their girlfriends to go in for them. Which essentially was one in the same.

At least Musubi was next to him, so that gave him plausible deniability in case one of the women started giving him the evil eye. He'd been given that look before in a department store where the women and men's changing rooms were side by side. He'd been trying on clothes and so had she. They'd both walked out of the changing room, one to show their girlfriend who had been with her, one to go pay for his selection. He had his pant's and shirt on, she didn't...

Yeah, women were scary when they wanted to be.

And now he was going to brave the storm and enter the cavern of danger and lacy undergarments, Heaven help him because at this point Soul Society wouldn't.

Taking his first tentative steps in the building got him a couple of dirty looks from the women shoppers, at least until they saw Musubi next to him. Those looks turned to saucy little smirks as the saw another man had been whipped into the proper pecking order. Ichigo just shuddered and lead Musubi to the relatively modest underwear section and grabbed a few things that he thought would fit her.

Several size's up from his choices and a little help from the clerk and he'd found Musubi's proper cup size. Really now, he never knew how much of an art it was in determining a bra size. By the time he'd realized what had happened, the clerk and another of the workers had several tape measures wrapped around Musubi's body and were scratching things down on a tablet. Within minutes they had a pink, silk bra that hugged her breasts like a glove and a pair of pink panties, also silk, that seemed to be an extension of her skin with how form fitting it was.

With the skin tone colored undergarments and how well they fit, it really didn't look like she was wearing anything at all. Which had the undesirable effect of him blushing and having to hide YET ANOTHER boner lest some woman call him on it in front of Musubi. He shuddered to think if they ever brought out the more erotic versions of the clothing. He'd probably bust a blood vessel or something.

Karma must have had it out for him though since not a moment later Musubi came out of the dressing room clad in a skimpy set of lingerie that barely covered anything and even if it did cover something it was entirely _see through. _ Ichigo's eyes widened comically and a hand flew to his nose to pinch off the nose bleed that was beginning to form there. He had seen Musubi naked just earlier in the day and was comfortable with it, but that wasn't nearly as erotic as the black, barely there lacy little number she had on now. After a few heroic seconds of holding back the flow, Ichigo's brain thought it better to just abort all functions than to risk massive blood loss.

He awoke a half hour later to several giggling women and a thoroughly confused Musubi.

Never again...

***Flashback end***

Yeeeaaah... that. Ichigo shook his head to clear it and walked into the bathroom to get dressed in a dark orange T-shirt and blue jeans, he also threw on a gray jacket while he was at it. After he had gone though the morning routine he walked out onto the second floor balcony that lead to the first floor. He was happy to see that there weren't any thugs out there this time. It had been nighttime two days ago that Ichigo had finally had a chance to keep his part of the bargain with the apartment manager.

***Flashback* **

Loud crashing alerted the tenants of the apartment complex that someone was again trashing the vending machines outside.

Ichigo groaned slightly, rolling out of Musubi's surprisingly loose grip this time and got up out of bed to see what all the fuss was about.

Opening the door to his apartment Ichigo blearily stared out over the balcony at the building on the other side of the lot. In his sleep induced haze he registered 4 male outlines, roughly sixteen to twenty five, probably that local gang that the manager was talking about. Lifting an arm over his head he stretched the kinks out of his shoulder and back, preparing himself for a fight even if it was a quick one, he wanted to get back to his bed and that warm, sexy lady that slept next to him.

Ichigo walked casually down the stairs and over to the thugs. Now most people would notice a six foot tall orange haired man coming up behind them, but Ichigo had a certain degree of stealth from doing work for less than reputable people, and he put that to use as he put his foot to use. Namely putting his foot in the back of one of the thug's head.

The man went down almost instantly, smashing against the wall across from him. The other three thugs turned quickly to face the man who had just axe kicked their friend.

"Who the hell are you?" One thug growled. This one had a number of piercing's in his face and a tattoo running down the length of his arm, he wore a hoodie and jeans that had several chains hanging from the pockets.

The other two were similarly dressed, so maybe it was something of an organized gang of some sort. If it was their official dress then they probably had a few other members under their name.

Not like Ichigo cared about that. He was tired, and these guys were ruining his sleep. Without another word he appeared in front of the one who had spoken and broke the mans jaw with a single punch. With a cry the man fell back in pain. He would have been unconscious had the pain not overrode that command.

The man crashed to the ground in a puddle of agony, holding his jaw in his hands. The other two thugs blinked and missed their leader getting his face caved in, the orange haired man now between them.

Ichigo leaned forward and brought a foot up and around in a back kick that caught the thug on his left in the face. The power of the kick broke his nose and flattened it against the side of his face. Again he would have been out cold had the searing pain not kept him awake.

Now down to just one, the last thug wasn't looking so sure of himself. Panicking the man pulled a switchblade from his right pocket. With a click the blade sprung out and the man lunged forward to stab Ichigo in the back.

The Fullbringer twisted in place, using his right arm to strike the arm carrying the blade, forcing it out and away from his body. Using his left arm to grab the same arm, Ichigo removed the blade from his hand, then a quick, powerful elbow to the face knocked the man onto his back, his head reeling from the pain. Ichigo just shook his head at the sad sight. They really didn't know how to fight at all, it wasn't even a warm up for him. Hell, Tatsuki could have taken the idiots.

The ex-Shinigami spun on his heel to walk back to his apartment, only stopped on the way back by the manager who looked from Ichigo to the four thugs and back, shook his head a couple times and laughed quietly before walking back into his room.

Ichigo had made it back up to the second floor of his apartment when the leader of the four thugs yelled through his busted jaw that he'd be coming back with his boss and that Ichigo would regret the day he messed with-

His rant was cut off by a flash of steel and a metallic thunk next to his head. The thug gulped and turned slightly to see his friend's switchblade buried up to it's handle in the wall next to him.

Ichigo watched in mild amusement as the four thugs ran off into the night, an arm over each others shoulder.

***Flashback end***

After that ass beating he had spent the next day repairing all the vending machines outside the building. Having a fullbring was actually pretty handy when you could pull on the soul of certain things and fix the damages like it never even happened. It was a trick Ichigo had come up with in his time as a repair man, he had fixed everything from broken watches to car engines and in doing so helped train himself in what he could and could not do with a Fullbring. On of his favorite discoveries had been the Velcro technique. It basically gave him the ability to stick to surfaces in a way that he wouldn't come off easily. Since he didn't have a spiritual body he could no longer easily stand on air or on the side of a building without using his fullbring on it first but even then he could be moved while standing on that surface. Unlike simply pulling on the soul of the air to allow him to stand on it, he literally stuck himself to the surface like Velcro, unmovable unless the force used overcame the Reiryoka he'd used to stick himself there.

Aside from that Ichigo had been surprised when the apartment manager walked out of his room and his jaw nearly dropped to the ground. The man had been so ecstatic that he'd even paid Ichigo for the work. A pleasant surprise in the Fullbringer honest opinion.

"Ashikabi-sama." A sleepy voice spoke up behind him.

Ichigo turned around to see Musubi sleepily rub her eyes, she must have finally realized that he wasn't next to her and had woken up to find him. It was one of those cute puppy moment's that just gave him warm fuzzies in his stomach. She looked absolutely adorable in the thin cream colored nightgown he had bought her to appease the crazy lingerie store workers, it was something tasteful and didn't quite flash everyone in the vicinity a crotch or nipple shot at every available moment, thankfully.

"Good morning Musubi and I've told you before, you can just call me Ichigo." He rubbed her head a little drawing a small pout from the girl.

"But you're my Ashikabi." she huffed, crossing her arms cutely.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Alright then, if you want to play that game. As your Ashikabi I order you to address me as Ichigo!"

Musubi snapped to attention, her eyes sparkling "Yes Ichigo-sama!"

Ichigo palmed his face. "You know what, fine" He lowered his hand and grabbed the girl, spinning her around to where she was facing the door. "Let's just get you dressed, you don't need to be walking around outside in nothing but a nightgown. Did you at least remember to wear panties?" He asked dryly.

"Does that have to do with modesty?" She asked curiously, holding a finger to her chin.

Ichigo made a small groaning noise at that. _'She is too innocent for her own good.'_ He pushed her back into the room to grab a fresh set of clothing. "Yes Musubi, wearing clothing out in public and not taking them off in public is called modesty. And doing the opposite of that is being immodest which isn't very nice, ok?" Ichigo hoped that the girl took his advice this time, this was like the third time he'd told her this in the past week and still the girl would strip at the most inopportune times.

"Mhmm." She murmur, almost completely ignoring him to put on her clothing. She was wearing her Sekirei outfit this time since most of her other clothing was being washed.

"Musubi... you didn't hear a word I said did you?"

"Mhmm." She responded again.

In one ear and out the other, she really needed to pay attention more.

"Musubi, you really should pay more attention to your-" Ichigo words cut off as he felt a large amount of Reiryoka coming from outside the apartment nearby. Running to the door Ichigo threw it open and searched frantically for the source of the energy. "That isn't good."

"HIYAAAAAAA!"

Ichigo's eyes widened as they went skyward to see a young woman with an absolutely massive hammer bearing down on the building.

"That's not good at all." Ichigo muttered, Leaping back into the apartment and grabbing Musubi before the entire roof caved in on top of them.

_**-ooo-**_

A small chuckle filled the air as a pair of glasses shined dangerously. The light from the computer screen illuminating a mans face in the dark room he sat in.

"And so it begins." Minaka smiled creepily, his white teeth gleaming much like his glasses. "Show me what you're made of Ichigo Kurosaki, I expect great things from you."

He pressed several button on the computer getting an aerial view of the destruction from one of his satellites.

"I expect great things from you and Musubi both." The mans cackling filled the room yet again as he watched the unfolding battle with interest.

_**-ooo-**_

_**I DUB THIS THE FLASHBACK CHAPTER OF DOOM!**_

_**To be clear, I'm not following the canon timeline exactly. Really, only a few days goes by before they go after Kuu in the Botanical Gardens. In this case It's been a week and that still hasn't happened yet, I moved the timeline ahead a few days so I could have more time for Ichigo to be with Musubi, mainly for character development stuff and to pad the chapter a bit, cant constantly have Sekirei battles back to back in the first few episodes...well I could but then the story would go to hell quickly lol.**_

_**And seriously, I had more fun writing the shopping scene than should be appropriate. I probably shouldn't have had the Access Denied remix of Guardians at the Gate playing while I wrote it huehuehuehuehue. It just made that scene feel more epic than it should have XD**_

_**Other than that I liked the humor I was able to plant in the chapter, since things might be getting a bit gloomy here in the next couple chapters. I'm going to try for a angst/comedy/angst/comedy routine so people don't get too overpowered by either. Next chapter should be pretty interesting.**_

_**Till then**_

_**Ciao**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Ok I'm going to point this out because 'fuck people' yo. The butthurt is over .9000 right now (So it's really only like 9 or 10 if you round it off)**_

_**It's annoying when your choices are criticized when they don't have anything to do with a screwed up OOC character, core rules of the universe being fucked to hell or some blasphemy against the sacred writing laws gifted by the literature gods. Flashbacks are not a sin people. Hell, I read a very nice story one time, it had a chapter that had NINE flashbacks in it, not a damn word about it in the reviews for that chapter. I do it four times as a semi-joke and people get pissy, especially a pleasant little reviewer by the name of Shinteo-5. let me ask you guys, would you really have made such a big deal about it had I not included the antagonistic "Flashback chapter of doom" thing at the bottom of last chapter? I'm thinking probably not.**_

_**Ugh I have a migraine. Today's 'nth of the day' will reflect my foul mood.**_

_**Fic o' the day: **_Reach Out To The Duke by Smash the Echidna ** A**_** horrible 133 word trolly piece of shit that looks like it was written by a 5 year old who plays too much CoD, you want to complain about bad writing? There.**_

_**Song/vid of the day: **_The Finger_** add DBZ to the search to find it. **_by camron2342. _**Preeety self explanatory**_

_**Word/s of the day: I couldn't find a strong enough word for hatred. So here, have all the synonyms for it: **_abhorrence, abomination, acrimony, alienation, allergy to, animosity, animus, antagonism, antipathy, aversion, bitterness, coldness, contempt, detestation, disapproval, disfavor, disgust, displeasure, distaste, enmity, envy, execration, grudge, hard feelings, hate, horror, hostility, ignominy, ill will, invidiousness, loathing, malevolence, malice, malignance, militancy, no use for, odium, pique, prejudice, rancor, repugnance, repulsion, revenge, revulsion, scorn, spite, spleen, venom.

_**It's a pleasant surprise that there's more synonyms for the word 'love' though.**_

_**Ok, let's get this shit sorted.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Sekirei, Gokurakuin can blow Kubo for all I care. My meds haven't kicked in yet so it's not like I can really enjoy watching it regardless. Also, just found out that the Mangaka of Sekirei (Ashika Sakura AKA Sakurako Gokurakuin) is a woman... whoda thunk it? With all the naked women, ripped clothing and tits flying around its got the makings of a soft core porno and yet... Female Mangaka. I'd call her God's gift to the world but that spot's claimed by my waifu Halibel. FUCK OFF! You Otaku bastards can't have her *noms* **_

_**Ahhh there we go the meds kicked in... *call lost***_

_**-ooo-**_

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

_Flashback_

**Narration/machines talking**

**"Hollow talking"**

_**'Hollow Thinking'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 4: Hammer Time.**_

A pair of cruel eyes watched the destruction of Ichigo's apartment with a wicked smile spread across his face.

"I thought you said this bitch hurt you guys?" He spat back at the four thugs behind him, the same thugs that Ichigo had taken care of two days ago.

"H-he did boss-Junichi." The one with the broken jaw mumbled through is bandages.

"Che." Junichi gnashed his teeth, "Pathetic, didn't even get a fight out of him." Just then an explosion from the roof of the caved in apartment mushroomed out, a small cloud of dust rising from the debris.

_Moment's earlier._

"That's not good at all." Ichigo muttered, Leaping back into the apartment and grabbing Musubi. With a liberal application of his Kōra, Ichigo braced for the roof's impact.

Like the hammer that had caused it the roof smacked into Ichigo's tensed frame, pushing him down to a knee before he could get his leg back under him and stable.

"Hang on Musubi." He spoke to the girl, who looked up at her Ashikabi with sparkles in her eyes, the fact that her Ashikabi could hold an entire collapsed roof like it was only a minor inconvenience made her blood boil for combat.

"Right, Ichigo-sama!"

The muscles in the Fullbringer's leg's tensed, visible green lines tracing their way around his feet, then with a burst of energy Ichigo leapt up, touching a single finger to the roof as he did so. A small line of green appeared, weakening the integrity of the material enough for him to plow through it and into the air.

The dust and dirt billowed around them as the flew almost effortlessly up and out to land a dozen yards, as away from the group of five thugs that had watched the destruction unfold. Ichigo glared at the five men, Musubi still held in his grasp.

"Well now, ain't this interesting?" The leader and obvious Ashikabi of the group. "A bitch and her Sekirei?"

Ichigo blinked owlishly at that comment before remembering that he just leapt out of a collapsed second story apartment, fifty feet into the air to land in a crouch in front of them, so to them he must have looked pretty Sekirei - like. Well that made things a bit interesting, but first...

"Musubi, down." He dropped Musubi, who let out a squawk in protest before Ichigo hopped up into the air. Just in time as a massive hammer flew horizontally between them. The ball of one of his feet touched down on the hammer, a small green line of energy swirled angrily around the point of contact, sticking him to the hammer's head like Velcro.

With a slightly heavier than normal weapon, the woman behind him heaved the massive hammer around in it's arc, smashing it into the ground with excessive force, leaving a small crater in its wake.

Once the ride had stopped Ichigo spun on the ball of his foot, still stuck to the hammer's surface. Once he had lined up with the the girl holding the hammer he sprinted down the handle, little green lines of fullbring energy holding him to the shaft. The girl's eyes widened when she noticed that the Sekirei that she had been aiming for had dodged her attack and was now bearing down on her. Ichigo however was not a Sekirei, he was a Fullbringer. A fact he brought home when he sunk the tip of his shoe in the girls chin as he back flipped away from her, landing near the recovering Musubi.

The girl's hand left the handle of the hammer as she flew back towards Junichi. The power of the kick rattling the teeth in her jaw as Ichigo put far more force than normal into it.

Junichi scowled down at his Sekirei. "You're such a useless bitch." He kicked her in the side. "Get up." He kicked her again when she struggled to get to her feet. "I said get up!" He grabbed a hand full of her hair and yanked her to her feet. "I can't believe you're having such a hard time with these pussies." A rough hand snaked around the Sekirei's back, coming around the other side to roughly grab one of her breasts "Start chanting and finish the fuckers." He leaned in to kiss the girl roughly on the lips.

The girl barely had time to squeak out a "Yes" before her wings appeared behind her.

Ichigo watched all of this, his fingers digging little red lines in his flesh as blood started dripping from his palm. His first fight, his VERY FIRST FIGHT in the Sekirei Plan was against a guy like him? Having grown up around Tatsuki and living with two younger sisters he had a very strict view on how you treated women. This display was at the very bottom of the list of what you should do, he treated her as barely better than a possession, and what was worse... She let him, he realized. She wasn't putting up any kind of fight, she just took it. _'Like a good Sekirei'_ Ichigo thought in disgust. This bastard had probably forcefully winged her too. Ichigo's teeth grit angrily, unconsciously releasing a small bit of his spiritual pressure on the surrounding area.

For the four goons behind Junichi, if felt like their life was being pulled from their bodies. For Junichi himself it felt like a massive weight was being placed on his shoulders, like it wanted to push him into the ground and hold him there until he died. The four goons ran off, wanting to get as far away from the evil 'Sekirei' as possible.

"Junichi-sama!" The hammer wielding Sekirei reached down to help hold her Ashikabi up.

"Don't hold on to me Yashima." The man snapped at her, slapping her hand away. Vaguely he felt the pressure increase just slightly but maybe that was his imagination. "Just go kill those fuckers!"

"Right." She nodded hesitantly, turning to face Ichigo, who had a very angry glare pointed directly at her master. The girl rushed forward and grabbed her massive war hammer in a two handed hold. "The hammer of my pledge. Enemy of my Ashikabi, Shatter!" She chanted her Norito, continuing her attach by lifting the hammer above her head, ready to crush the enemies of her Ashikabi. "I-I'm n-number 84 Yashima. "

"Ichigo-sama" Musubi cried. "She's using her Norito, watch out. " Musubi ran to protect her Ashikabi who just stood there still giving Junichi the coldest glare any of the two Sekirei had ever seen.

Junichi scowled "Enough with the drama, hurry up and kill those bastards, dammit! If you don't finish this quickly I'll let the boys have their way with you again!"

Yashima flinched at her Ashikabi's words but nodded, bringing the hammer up and over her head. "Gravity Hammer!"

A single hand surrounded by angry, luminescent green lines rose up, the spiritual pressure doubling in an instant. Junichi fell to his knees, the two Sekirei started sweating and everything within a half mile radius felt the sheer anger radiating out from the epicenter of whatever had been pissed off. The religious among that group prayed for the soul of whoever had pissed the thing off because only a god would save that soul now.

"I-Impossible." Yashima breathed, her hands shaking around the handle of her hammer.

Ichigo stood there, one hand holding the hammer, the other holding Musubi back. All around Ichigo's feet were spider web-like cracks and a small crater where the weight of the hammer had driven him into the ground.

Yashima shivered at the absolutely cold look in Ichigo's eyes. It wasn't directed at her, no. It was directed at her Ashikabi, who was on his knees dry heaving up his guts.

"Musubi." Ichigo muttered to the girl beside him.

"Y-yes A-Ashikabi-s-sama?" The girl spoke quickly, stuttering her words. She could feel the intense hatred and anger through their link and to be perfectly honest, it frightened her.

Yashima's eyes widened as she looked from Ichigo to Musubi and back. She had been fighting an Ashikabi the entire time?"

"Keep her busy." He threw his hand to the side, flinging the hammer away like an insignificant toy. In a flash his body disappeared, several small green lines following behind the blur that he'd become.

That same blur appeared in front of Junichi and grabbed the man by his hoodie, lifting him half a foot off the ground to stare into Ichigo's hate filled eyes.

"Ashikabi-sama!" Yashima cried, only to catch a fist to her cheek from Musubi.

"Your fights with me! I'm Number 88 Musubi!" The eighty eighth Sekirei hopped from one foot to another in preparation for battle, it was her first real fight as a winged Sekirei and she was going to enjoy it, despite the feelings coming from her Ashikabi. With a roar the girl charged Yashima, slamming her fist against the girls hammer, which she had used as a quickly raised defense.

Yashima didn't seem to care about the girls designation, she just wanted to make sure her Ashikabi was safe. "Gravity Hammer!" She cried raising the weapon up and slamming it back down only to miss as Musubi leapt back several times, dodging the shockwave.

"Ashikabi-Sama!" Yashima yelled, rushing Ichigo now that she had an opening. She was stopped yet again when Musubi came up behind her and slammed her fist into the head of the hammer, sending it nose first into the ground and stopping the other Sekirei cold a dozen feet short of Ichigo and her Ashikabi.

Ichigo didn't pay attention to any of what was going on behind him, he trusted Musubi to do what he asked and keep Yashima busy. he didn't plan on this lasting very long anyway. Ichigo's fist lashed out, knocking several teeth from the man's jaw, breaking him out of his retching to groan in pain and look at Ichigo with intense hatred.

"Do you know who I am you fucker? I'm Junichi Tanigawa, your ass is mine you bastard." Another fist ricocheted off the mans face, knocking another set of teeth free. "Stchop dammi." He growled, the lack of front teeth giving him a lisp. "Ya cant attack me ya bashtard, it's gens the ruus." He spat out a wad of his own blood, his self assuredness getting the better of him. "Shekia cant attack shikabi."

Ichigo snorted at the man's stupidity. "You made three mistakes here today Junichi." He punched the man in the gut, forcing the man to hack up more blood from his mouth. Ichigo moved out of the way of the foul liquid and let him puke out what was left of his stomach on the ground.

"One." He slammed the man against a nearby wall. "You decided to try and kill me and Musubi over there."

Junichi gasped something out but Ichigo slammed him against the wall again.

"Two." A scowl crossed Ichigo's face. "You abused your Sekirei and threatened to gang rape her if she didn't do what you wanted as fast as you wanted." This time Ichigo kneed the man below the belt to punctuate his displeasure about that certain bit of damning evidence.

Yashima's Ashikabi released a gasp of air and would have thrown up more had he not emptied his stomach's contents twice before. As it stood the only thing that came out was a sickening retching noise.

"And finally, your third mistake." He brought the nearly cross eyed Junichi inches from his face. His brown eyes glowed a furious gold for a moment as he reached a hand into his pocket to grab his Fullbring. Ichigo held the Badge up against Junichi's chest and growled. "Was that you assumed I was a Sekirei. _Protectors Honor."_

_*SHINK*_

Junichi's eyes widened at first in surprise at the information, then even more in pain. He glanced down to see Ichigo holding a strange metal plate of some sort. A white cloth wrapped handle extended from the back, while a blade extended from the front. Only 2 inches of the blade were were visible though as the rest of it was buried deep into his chest. After a few seconds the mans face turned pale before his eyes followed, going dull and lifeless as his life blood flowed from the wound in his chest.

Dropping the body, Ichigo's eyes closed. Killing never got any easier. He had killed before, obviously. His first kill had been the hollow to attack his family. Sure, the hollow were monster's and he could rationalize them as such since their soul was sent to Soul Society after their purification, but below the mask they were still sentient creatures and he had ended their existence. Which was made painfully obvious when he killed the more human-like Arrancar. The Bount were also human and he had killed a few of them as well. The Fullbringer's of Xcution had been human too, but he had still cut them down mercilessly. Not to mention the lives he'd taken during these last ten years of his life.

His Hollow self had been right, he was a beast of killer instinct. He sought battle, he relished it... but at the end of the day there was still the blood of another sentient being on his hands. It never got any easier.

Ichigo sighed and deactivated his Fullbring, already wanting this day to end. After that blow up he felt drained more than normal, maybe he was getting old? Hah, fat chance. He still had a good decade or two before he was old spinach chin's age. With Junichi dead they could find a better Ashikabi for Yashima, maybe even-

"Ichigo-sama!"

The Fullbringer spun quickly at his Sekirei's distressed call. It was then he noticed the Yashima was lying on the ground, unmoving.

_'No, why would she-?'_ Ichigo's eyes widened as he looked back at Junichi. _'The link... does it...dammit!'_ Ichigo ran over to Yashima's body, idly noting that the back of her clothing had been torn off during the fight. He could clearly see the girls crest disappearing, crumbling away like it had never even been there. _'Fuck! FUCKFUCKFUCK' _ Ichigo's grip on the girls arms tightened as he watched her essentially dying in his arms. _'I promised to protect as many Sekirei that I could, to prevent their cursed fate and I cant even free them from an abusive Ashikabi?' _ Ichigo's spiritual pressure started rising again unconsciously, though it was now filled with anxiety and anger directed at himself. He probably would have crushed the poor souls in the apartment complex behind him had Musubi not laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Do you want to save her?" The surprisingly mature voice of Musubi asked him.

The Fullbringer's eyes darted Musubi's way, before they widened in shock. Musubi's eyes had turned into a pair of Yin Yang symbols, and a large crest with the numbers 08 displayed on her stomach, which was no longer covered by her gi as it was mostly torn away.

"Musubi...wha-?" he tried to ask but she stopped him.

"It's Yume actually." She replied in a warm motherly tone. The looked of shocked recognition in Ichigo's face told her all she needed to know. "Yes, Musubi passed out from overexertion so I'm in control of her body at the moment, but we must hurry. Do you wish to save this girl?" She nodded to the rapidly fading crest of Yashima.

"Yes." Ichigo said almost instantly. "Why would you even have to ask?"

Yume frowned slightly. "What would you do if someone killed the only thing that mattered to you in life?"

Ichigo grimaced. That hit really, really close to home and there was really only one of two options for that scenario.

Kill the killer or kill yourself... or both. None of those options seemed pleasant at the moment.

"If you don't want either of those things to happen... you'll have to 'wing' her." Yume replied sadly.

Oh, Now Ichigo felt even worse. He would essentially be doing the exact same thing that junichi had done. Taking away her freedom of choice and forcefully winging her. But what was more important...? Life or freedom? He couldn't choose both and he was running out of time. A small warmth rose in his pocket, his guiding scale, his pride, his fullbring. Pulling it from his pocket he felt the reassuring weight in his hand and the warmth that permeated his soul.

Pride, it seems had chosen for him. But pride is often called a double edged sword, a fact he knew all too well.

And sometimes pride forced you to make tough decisions. For him, his pride forced him to save the innocent... even from themselves.

Ichigo took a deep breath before releasing it. "Do it, save her."

"Very well." Yume said solemnly, resting her hand on Yashima's crest. "You'll need to channel some of your energy into my hand here. " She pointed with her other hand at Ichigo's Fullbring. "I know you're more than you appear." At Ichigo's shocked look, she just smiled sadly. "I felt your power through Musubi's link. Quickly now or she'll die."

Reacting quickly, Ichigo laid his Fullbring over Yume's hand and channeled a large amount of spiritual power though it.

"There, that's good." She nodded, focusing her own power into the girls crest. After a few tense moment's Ichigo sighed in relief when the girls crest was restored.

"It's done. She'll be waking in a moment and you'll need to wing her then." She moved away from the two and watched the next few moments quietly.

"As-Ashikabi-sama?" The girl mumbled, her eyes opening slowly as she regained consciousness. "Ashi-" The girl froze when she locked eyes with Ichigo, her body going rigid as she remembered the look in his eyes when he had been staring at her A... Yashima's eyes widened as they searched frantically for Junichi, a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach as they finally landed on the body of her Ashikabi, already starting to lose it's color as the puddle of blood around the body grew.

The girl wrestled herself from Ichigo's grasp to drag herself across the ground, over to her dead Ashikabi. You could hear the girl crying, sobs wracking her body as she cradled the head of her dead love between her arms.

Ichigo watched the scene, torn between going through with the act or just-

"No." He stared back at Yume and could see the deep sadness in her eyes at the state of Yashima. She shook her head slightly. "Go. You chose this, finish it." She closed her eyes, as tears began to leak from them, she never wanted to see her fellow Sekirei see such heartache, it went against every fiber of her being.

Releasing a shuddering breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, Ichigo approached the crying girl. It irked him that she would be crying over such a scum of a man, but he knew he was just looking for reasons to rationalize what he was about to do.

Reaching down, he grabbed the girls shoulder gently.

Yashima jerked slightly, turning sharply to face who would dare stop her from grieving. She froze again when she saw the eyes of her Ashikabi's killer. But what stopped her from attacking this man, the murderer of the man she had pledged her undying love and loyalty to, were his eyes.

The man's eyes held a deep sadness in it, as deep as her own, if it was possible. She would have said something, tried if she could. But what happened next shocked her to her core.

"I'm sorry" Ichigo muttered under his breath as he grabbed the girls shoulders, pulling her closer to him. Time seemed to stop for the both of them as their lips met, both their bodies freezing up as they could feel the bond beginning to form. A bright bluish white crest formed on her back, overwriting the previous one as dozens of petal like wings sprouted from it, forming a blossom like shape. Neither seemed to take notice. Ichigo put all of his effort into that kiss, he promised right there to make it up to the poor girl in any way he could.

After the deed was done and the light faded, their lips separated. As they both took a gasp for air Yashima stared into Ichigo's eye's, a curious expression on her tear stained face. She looked down to the head of Junichi still held in her lap, then back up to Ichigo's expressionless face. She repeated that motion several times before she tiled her head questioningly at Ichigo. "A-Ashikabi-sama?"

A small smile appeared on Ichigo's face as he nodded and drew the girl into a hug. "Forever and ever." He promised.

Yashima's eyes watered, though a smile was spread across her lips. "Ashikabi-sama" She muttered again, hugging Ichigo's body as close as she could, sobbing into his shoulder.

Sobbing, but a smile still remained. Sadness and happiness too equal for one emotion to overpower the other.

Another body joined the hug a moment later. Idly Ichigo noticed that it was Yume, or at least Musubi as the girls eyes were back to normal.

Musubi didn't need to know what was happening. You didn't need any reason to comfort someone who was grieving.

_**-ooo-**_

A slow clap echoed in the dark Room Minaka had watched the battle from. His joy apparent on his face as he watched the unfolding drama.

"Good show Ichigo Kurosaki and you as well Musubi." He spoke solemnly, continuing his slow applause for the two. "Every love story must have a tragedy, and what is the Sekirei Plan but a love story for the ages? Hnm, so too must there be tragedy for the ages."

"Director!" A Female scientist rushed into the darkened room. "Director, Something seems to be wrong with Number eighty-four Yashima. We picked up the death of her Ashikabi and her subsequent termination but... she's back online and just a moment ago she was wi... Director?" The woman stopped, taking a moment to registered the odd expressing on Minaka's face.

"You worry too much Takami-san." Minaka waved a dismissive hand her way. "I know what has happened, continue your study of the situation."

"V-very well." She nodded, it was these certain moments when Minaka was being serious that she could rationalize why she'd had a child with the man. Right now he wasn't the goofy Minaka that everyone knew. Right now he was the Director of MBI, one of the most powerful conglomerates on the planet. You couldn't get that powerful that quickly without being at least somewhat ruthless and Minaka certainly over qualified.

"Good night Takami-san!" Minaka sing-songed to the woman as she left.

And then there were times she hated the man's guts.

_**-ooo-**_

Some luck seemed to be on the Fullbringer's side that night, seeing as most of his and Musubi's clothing had been in the wash when the attack happened, they hadn't really lost anything of value in the collapse apartment, nothing that wasn't easily replaceable at least.

Ichigo had cleaned both Sekirei up after the attack using a small sink from the laundry room. He had then used his Fullbring on the still wet clothes to dry them quickly and get the girls into something more decent and less blood stained.

He would have spent more time searching the apartment but right now he just wanted to be as far away as possible from the area, he had already attracted too much attention to himself with that release of Reiryoka and it was sure to bring in any and every self assured half cocked Ashikabi looking for a fight.

They had to move and quickly to the only safe place that he knew of.

The North. Where only a single point was dominated by a Sekirei's presence. Very few seemed keen about staying around it long and none stayed within twenty blocks of the place.

If he stayed within that perimeter they might just be safe and if it wasn't safe, he only had to deal with a single threat rather than a dozen smaller ones.

Ichigo hated micro managing. One super powered threat at a time, that's all he needed. Hefting the bag of hastily dried clothing he motioned for Musubi and Yashima to follow him.

With a small luminescent green line of bringers light Ichigo hopped to the nearest roof top. The two Sekirei, having seen the strange power's their Ashikabi wielded already, didn't seem to shocked by it as the followed. The trio leaping from roof top to roof top as they made their way north.

Several hours later, they found themselves at street level again. It was close to dark now and the Ichigo was forced to carry Yashima after the near death experience had zapped most of her strength from her. She had cried along the way, clutching on to Ichigo's shirt as the mixed signals of her memories and feelings between her two Ashikabi collided. Ichigo couldn't devote any time toward comforting her at the moment, he wanted to be someplace warm and maybe even comfortable if he had the luxury. Hell, he'd start a campfire if he had to if it came to it. The brisk night wouldn't do well for any of them and the last thing they needed was to catch cold.

"Oh my!" The Fullbringer came to a stop at the sound of that voice, a bead of sweat spreading across his brow. How could he not have felt that presence in front of him?

Ahead and to the left, coming off a side street was a woman in her mid thirties carrying some shopping bags around her arm and her long violet colored hair blowing in the breeze. Though, it wasn't the hair that had caught his attention. It was the immediately overwhelming spiritual energy that Ichigo sensed within the woman that had given him pause.

It seemed that his luck really was shitty that day as he had apparently ran into the one thing he wanted to avoid in the North.

"Excuse me?" The women asked politely. "Is that woman injured?" She pointed to the exhausted looking Yashima in Ichigo's arms, who was still crying softly into his shirt.

Like a deer caught in headlights Ichigo was at a loss as to what to say, he really hadn't expected for the huge power source he'd felt on his first night after winging Musubi would be standing right in front of him like she was asking for the time of day. Then her question seemed to sink in and he shook his head.

"N-no," He replied quickly. "She's exhausted though and we don't have anywhere to sleep for tonight, we've been looking for a place to stay for awhile now but nothing's come up."

"Oh?" The woman covered her mouth with her hand. "That's terrible. You won't find many hotels or apartments on this side of town, most of those are in the residential and tourism districts in the South and West."

"We kind of figured..." Ichigo looked uncomfortable. Hell, anyone would look uncomfortable around the sheer presence the woman had. It was easily as powerful as a high ranking captain in sheer Reiryoka density. How he hadn't realized she was there before confused him, maybe she had dampened her spiritual pressure to where people couldn't sense it unless they were absolutely trying to find it or were so close you couldn't _help _but feel it.

"This simply won't do." The woman shook her head. "My name is Miya Asama and I run the Izumo Inn down the road from here. If you're looking for a place to stay, I have some openings for tenants." She frowned slightly at Ichigo's hesitance. "Of course I won't allow you to sleep on the streets on a night like this, you may stay there for tonight and leave in the morning if you wish."

Oh that sounded too good to be true for Ichigo's liking. "What's the catch?" Ichigo asked cautiously. "I can't expect you to house three complete strangers on a whim."

Miya's frown dipped down into a small sad smile. "My late husband was a man who never turned away people in need, his bad habits rubbed on to me when he passed. I've done my best to follow in his footsteps and helping people whenever I can."

Okaaay, that's a new one. Ichigo was used to people with that kind of Reiryoka trying to kill him by now. people with that level of power tended to stab first ask questions later and it showed in the general 'feel' of their Reiryoka. Miya's wasn't entirely unpleasant per se. In fact, she felt rather upbeat and even 'flowery' in a way. But, underneath that was a tiny fraction of sadness and regret that hit Ichigo square in the face. It was the feeling of someone who had spent a life fighting and killing to find their life hollow and empty at the end of their journey. Ichigo knew that feeling, he had fought too many people who had that mindset not to see it.

He felt it now, without even having to clash swords with the woman. Ichigo wondered idly what he would feel if he ever tried to read her Reiryoka? Or maybe if she was a Sekirei that used a blade, if he ever chose to cross swords with her...what memories would he dig up that cause the woman such sadness?

"Alright." He said finally, shaking the uncomfortable thoughts from his mind. "Lead the way."

Miya made a small sound of assent and started walking along the road that Ichigo had been walking, taking a few side streets several times until they ended up at a large, two story, traditional Japanese style home. It sat on a fairly large patch of land and the entirety of it was surrounded by a head high wooden fence. All in all it looked kind of cozy now that Ichigo had gotten a good look at it. Not that it make him lower his guard any around the powerful woman leading them there. But it was still a nice place to live if they did indeed choose to live there.

"I'm home" The woman spoke up. Her voice, while soft, carried through every room of the house. "I've brought guests."

"What? Really?" A brown haired head poked around the corner of one of the rooms to greet Miya and Ichigo. "Hey Miya. Who'dya drag home like a stray cat this time?" The girl eyed Ichigo up and down, noticing the girl in his arms and the one behind him looking rather oblivious to everything. "Wow Miya, did you decide to get yourself a boyfriend or something? He's actually pretty cute."

"Uzume." Miya's smile turned sickly sweet for a moment which had the desired effect of cowing the poor girl as she pulled back to where only her eyes and the top of her head peeked out.

"Please!" Uzume pleaded. "I'll be good."

"Hmn" Miya smiled that fake smile "See that you do, and please don't walk around without your panties on again, at least not while the guest are staying here." The pink haired landlady sighed again when Uzume's eyes widened slightly, muttering a quick "One Second" as she disappeared around the corner and several frantic footsteps could be heard heading upstairs.

Miya shook her head "That was Uzume" She pointed up at the ceiling. "She lives on the second floor. Room two oh three."

"Ah Miya, you're back." Another head poked out of one of the rooms, this one seemed to be a bedroom rather than the living room that Uzume had disappeared from. It was also crowned with the most silvery white hair Ichigo had ever seen and on a guy who looked about as old as he was. "I'm guessing Uzume forgot her panties again?" The androgynous looking man asked? At least Ichigo hoped that was a man, by the sound of his voice and the feminine features he could have passed off as a women if he wore a bit of drag.

"Yes." Miya replied evenly. "And we have guests tonight." She gestured behind her with the hand that wasn't carrying groceries.

The Silver haired men gave the three a once over, eyes sharpening slightly when they fell on the girl in Ichigo's arms. A look which disappeared as quickly as it had appeared as he let out a small smile. "Name's Kagari."

Ichigo had watched the interplay between Miya and the two other guests curiously, before something hit his senses right on the nose. BOTH Uzume and Kagari were Sekirei. It was hard to tell over the overwhelming power of Miya, but he definitely felt it. They were both easily low captain class Sekirei in power and it was probably only Miya's power that had hidden the two to his senses when he first scanned the city. And now he was on edge, not only was there one, but now three captain class Sekirei that he'd have to deal with if they proved to be hostile. Their interaction thus far hadn't had any ill intent in it, but you could never be too careful in situations like these.

"Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki." He nodded to the only other male there. "This is Yashima" He nodded to the girl in his arms who was near to falling asleep in his arms. "And that's Musubi."

"I'm a Sekirei." Musubi replied happily, waving to Kagari.

"Musubi." Ichigo sighed, really he needed to teach her some tact one of these days, she seemed to be really, really dense when she wanted to be. "Never mind."

Kagari snorted but said nothing.

"I think it's about time I started diner." Miya spoke up, cutting off the tense situation before it started. "I hope you'll be joining us this evening?" She turned to address the trio behind her.

At that moment Musubi's stomach decided to make itself known by growling _loudly_.

"Ufufufu, I'll take that as a yes." Miya chuckled to herself. "Make yourselves comfortable, it will be ready shortly."

_**-ooo-**_

After diner, Miya had shown them the room that they would be sharing, it was a tight fit for three people in one room but Ichigo had insisted for Yashima's sake. Miya looked curiously at Ichigo, but didn't press the issue. The girl hadn't said one word during diner, and had Miya been with Ichigo the entire time she would have known that the girl hadn't said anything but 'Ashikabi-sama' all day, and that was only two or three times before she had clammed up since then.

Thankfully Ichigo had the foresight to let the two girls sleep together, letting them take comfort in each others presence. He wouldn't be joining them just yet, he had seen the look Miya had flashed him when she had showed them their room. She wanted to talk to him and he'd be a fool to ignore her. So, following the energy to its source he found Miya sitting comfortably in Seiza, sipping tea while looking out into the yard.

Ichigo joined the woman in a similar sitting position and waited for her to speak first. It was only courteous as she had asked him here.

After around 15 minutes of almost total silence the woman spoke up, breaking the quiet of the sounds of nature around them.

"No." She replied simply.

"What?" Ichigo turned his head, almost surprised by the woman's abrupt words.

"No, I'm not a threat. No, I wont harm you and your Sekirei and no, I have nothing to do with Minaka and his Sekirei Plan."

"How did-?" He tried to ask but she cut him off.

"You tensed up the moment you saw me." She explained simply. "The same with Kagari and Uzume. You considered all three of us a threat and were ready to fight or run without knowing who we were. Either you are overly cautious or you knew that we were dangerous." She turned to regard the man, a look of blank curiosity on her face. "Not many people can feel a Sekirei's presence, much less my own like you can and those that do tend to stay far away in fear. From what I can see of the young girls condition I assume you were attacked?"

Ichigo nodded. "You've met people like me then?"

"I assumed as much." She sighed. "And yes, I've met people who could sense Sekirei, one in particular was a rather talented fighter and called me something along the lines of 'Hollow' before yelling something at me and running away as if his soul depended on it. Does that word mean anything to you?" She asked curiously seeing a look of recognition in his eyes.

"Evil spirit." He replied gruffly. "Chases after the souls of loved ones before devouring it, creating another Hollow. Some people like me are special, we stop them and purify the souls, sending them to heaven. Or hell, if they were evil in life." He felt oddly comfortable telling the landlady that for some reason. Maybe it was because she had been honest with him as well. His honor and pride demanded no less in the face of her sincerity

"That was about the gist of what the man said to me." She nodded, the idea that there were evil spirits not really bothering the woman. She knew that the Tama was essentially a Sekirei's soul, so why wouldn't human's have souls? And why couldn't they be evil or purified like stories say? Miya was a very open minded woman like that it seemed.

"There are two rules in Maison Izumo." She explained, setting her tea cup down to stare at him intently. "No Illicit behavior and no fighting. As long as I am here there will be none of either or their will be consequences, Understood?" She raised a single eyebrow in his direction, indicating for him to respond.

"Yes." He nodded. "So-"

"Yes, you can stay, it's fifty thousand yen per month. And no, harm will not come to any of you as long as you are under this roof, you have my word."

Ichigo stared at the woman for several long moments, his eyes searching hers for any deception, when he found none he nodded. "I...need to get some air...will you-"

"Yes, I'll keep an eye on them." She nodded.

"Thank you." He bowed lightly, grateful for the woman's hospitality. It was strange how he'd felt so on edge around the woman at first and now he was almost too comfortable around the woman after such a short conversation. Ichigo blamed it on his Fullbring reading the Reiryoka she was exuding. Everything he sensed from the woman was entirely sincere, there wasn't a single drop of deceit in her words. And when she had given her word, he could feel her conviction in keeping it.

His earlier tenseness all but gone, Ichigo went back to the room he shared with his Sekirei to check on them. A small grin spread across his lips when he saw that Yashima had cuddled into Musubi chest and was hugging the girl like an oversized plush toy, it helped that a shadow of a smile was on her face as well.

Turning away, Ichigo walked to the door leading out of the Inn. He really did need to get some air and sort through all that had happened that day and the best way he did that was through training or strenuous exercise, something he couldn't do in the relative quiet of the Inn.

Closing the door behind him Ichigo leapt out into the night, a single line of green light following after him.

_**-ooo-**_

_**Bet you didn't see THAT fucking coming now did you? I angered the HELL out of this chapter, then I saddened the HELL out of this chapter. Pulling something out of my ass that I've thought about using from the beginning. Yume restores Musubi's crest with that benehenhenhenhne bitch that I cant remember her proper name destroy's it. So why couldn't she restore a different Sekirei's crest if she had the extra Reiryoka to do so?  
**_

_**Like I said last chapter angst/comedy/angst/comedy. I just surprised myself this time that I made this sooooo tear jerky. I actually kinda cried a bit TT_TT**_

_**Also I hope you can all appreciate the semi-serious/semi-humorous AN at the top, I'm not trying to be a dick but I've had a shitty day and hatters gonna hat.**_

_**Fun fact: I channeled my anger into Ichigo's anger, could you tell?**_

_**Peace yo**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**A lot of people have been saying that I overpowered the Sekirei or underpowered the Shinigami.**_

_**I'd like to say that I did nothing of the sort. Let me put this as simply as possible. If an advanced captain level Sekirei fought an Advanced captain Shinigami, the Sekirei would get raped. Simple, right?**_

_**I never said that the Sekirei were more powerful than the Shinigami. Just that most of them had raw power (Reiryoka/Spiritual power) that coincided with similar ranks as the Shinigami.**_

_**Let's compare here. Kuu has 4th seat level Reiryoka. She has unseated fighting ability, if any. **_

_**But beyond that, Sekirei aren't extremely fast or extremely versatile. They are flesh and blood when a Shinigami is anything but, their spiritual body is all around better than a Sekirei's and anything short of a decapitation is hard pressed to kill them. Sekirei are also adjusted before the series even starts so that they wont kill their Ashikabi, this limits the ability of a Sekirei but it doesn't change the amount of Reiryoka they have in their body. They also only have a core group of attacks that coincide with their style/motif and that's about it, rarely are these attacks usable short of straight up 1 on 1 battles.**_

_**Compare Shinigami who are (3rd seat and above) Faster (via Shunpo and other high speed movement techniques) More Skilled in Zanjutsu/weapons (specifically their katana and whatever their Shikai and Bankai turns into, plus they've been training with said weapons for dozens if not hundreds of years) and more versatile (Through all of the above plus Kidō, Hakuda Hohō**__** and whatever their Shikai and Bankai abilities are.) Shinigami aren't limited to just one set of skills like Sekirei are. **_

_**Take Musubi for instance, she's basically just fists on feet. She's not really that fast or that versatile and she uses fist based attacks much like Chad does. **_

_**Let's recap shall we? Chad got his ass handed to him by unreleased Zanpakuto Shunsui. Chad got his ass handed to him by Yammy (Who is about as strong as a low level captain at the time) Chad got his ass handed to him by an unreleased Nnoitra. (Who is basically an advanced captain in power until he releases.) So in summary, Chad is around low to mid lieutenant during the SS invasion and high lieutenant to low captain in power during the Hueco Mundo invasion. Which is much like Musubi is right now. And the only reason her power is around low captain at times is because of Yume's Tama sending Reiryoka through her system at regular intervals, which is why it 'fluctuates' as I've said.**_

_**Simply put, Sekirei will get their shit kicked in if they ever fought any similarly ranked and skilled Shinigami of 3rd seat or above because Shinigami are almost always faster, sometimes stronger, Usually more durable due to being a soul and more versatile in that most of them know **__**Kidō and their**__** Zanpakuto have abilities that a Sekirei can't match or counter. Like Wabisuke's special ability for instance. If Kira were to use that against Miya's sword a few times she'd be all but disarmed with her lethality potential cut in half, much more if he managed to nick her limbs or clothing in the process.**_

_**I CAN say that fourth seat level Shinigami may have trouble with their Sekirei doubles since there's usually a severe drop off of power between 3rd and 4th seat, same with both 3rd and Lieutenant and Lieutenant and Captain. It's like multiplied by a factor of 5-10 for each rank up :/**_

_**Now, let's compare Ichigo and Miya. Both are fast, both are mainly sword users with some hand to hand and they can launch energy attacks with their blades that cause untold amounts of damage. There's literally no difference to them except in SPEED, which Ichigo is FASTER than her even though he also has a physical body, he makes up for this by using his fullbring to amplify his speed. Although I could also say that Miya is more skilled with a sword than Ichigo is (Which she is unfortunately) Which would allow her to fight on equal footing with him regardless of his speed. The Ichigo in MY story, not Transcendent Ichigo, not Vizard Ichigo, not even Shinigami Ichigo. Fullbring Ichigo. My version of Fullbring Ichigo tops off at the high end of low to Advanced Captain level as well. So Miya, Karasuba, and pretty much anyone from the original Disciplinary Squad (sans Matsu) could hold their own against Ichigo. Which was honestly the whole point of comparing the Sekirei to the Shinigami in ways that people could understand. **_

_**Would you honestly continue reading this if Ichigo did to every Sekirei what he did to Junichi? Basically curb stomping everything while drinking their blood from the skulls of his enemies? That would get very dull, very quickly (Like many godlike stories do) Ichigo has some 'very serious threats' to 'slightly less serious but still a concerning level of serious' threats to face in the Sekirei plan. Anyone who is low to advanced captain level in the Sekirei Plan can give Ichigo a hard time if they hit him hard enough and fast enough. Also for those interested I'd like to compare Yashima (who is around 3rd to Lieutenant seat) to the Lieutenant of squad 2, Ōmaeda. (who is one of the weakest Lieutenants and has a similar weapon with that giant flail Shikai of his.) Both she and he are not the strongest of their rank but they're still a credible threat if given a chance.**_

_**Alright then, long AN is long so lets get on with the story.**_

_**Fic o' the day: **_Naruto's BFF by Lucillia _** "**__**Due to an unfortunate choice of words, Madara gets a little stalker before the Massacre." Aka Naruto. This story is awesome and I give it a 9 outa 10 on the lulz scale.**_

_**Song/vid of the day: **_DJ Delinquent - Deff Note 2 _**This song will make your balls BIGGER. Not really, but it's epic enough to if we lived in a world where music contained mystical powers. This is An instrumental rap song by that samples the Death Note main theme. You know the one, the one with the Latin chanting that happens during the penultimate point of an episode or when something amazing happens. It's the 19th track from the first OST I believe. Good song to ball hard and write harder to.**_

_**Word of the day: **_Penultimate _**Because that word is just awesome. **_adj. 1. Next to last n. 2. Linguistics Of or relating to the penult of a word

_**Disclaimer: I dont own shit. Bleach, Sekirei and just for the heck of it Naruto can blow me, preferably Naruko, because he/she is a sexy he-bitch. Don't even care.**_

_**-ooo-**_

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

_Flashback_

**Narration/machines talking**

**"Hollow talking"**

_**'Hollow Thinking'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 5: Mending Broken Snowflakes**_

Green lights danced over the northern end of Shinto Teito. To a casual observer it looked like shooting stars. For Ichigo Kurosaki it was a brisk jog through the neighborhood. As soon as a foot would touch a surface a single circle of green light would appear and shoot him off in a random direction, the small green light following along behind him. He had come out to clear his head, to wipe away some of the anxiousness he still felt after what had happened today. It still ate at him, even now while he was partaking of one of the few vices he still had left. An adrenaline high. It was the one thing that allowed him to just bask in the wonder of using his fullbring. After he had lost his Shinigami powers he had understood fully, just how weak he was without them. Now that he had something similar he had never taken it for granted again. Ever since the day he had regained his ability to fight on par with some of the best in soul society, he had cherished those abilities.

After another hour of the light show Ichigo landed in the comforting embrace of a nearby forested park, where he could rest without anyone noticing him.

He felt tired, on top of what had happened earlier in the day. But more than that he felt sick.

He hadn't been able to get what he'd done to Yashima out of his mind, he had felt horrible for committing what was essentially rape to save her life. It wasn't even a rape of her body, it was a rape of her mind and soul. What only made things worse was he had to deal with the link between them the entire time as it sent her emotions through. To plainly put it Yashima's emotions were fucked, a complete jumbled mess. It was like a tug of war between Junichi's memory and his reality. At some point something had to tip and start affecting him. Flipping around and doing quote-unquote "stupid acrobatic shit" with his fullbring didn't help his stomach any.

The Fullbringer quickly ducked behind a bush and quietly emptied his stomach of it's contents. After a few minutes of relieving the queasy feeling, Ichigo walked out from the brush and took a deep breath of the cold night air.

Even now he could feel the ghostly connection to Musubi and Yashima, tickling at the back of his consciousness. If this was what it was like to wing multiple sekirei then Ichigo was beginning to regret making that promise to protect as many Sekirei as he could. If the only way for him to protect them was to wing them and if the current state of his emotions were anything to go by then he'd either be schizophrenic or an emotional wreck by the time he got around to four or five of them.

It really put into perspective how emotionally devoid most of his life had been, it was kind of humbling actually, to feel the vibrant, powerful emotions flowing through him, given to him like a gift.

_'Or a curse'_ Ichigo rolled his eyes as he took off at a comfortable walk through the park. It wasn't like he wasn't dealing with one of those already anyway. More likely he considered the link to be more of a double edged sword than anything else.

Thankfully, that run had calmed his nerves a bit and helped him concentrate on what he had come out there to do. To relax and to think.

Not that he had much to think about except his interactions with his Sekirei and the occupants of Maison Izumo. During diner he was surprised to find out that the three Sekirei of Izumo Inn were actually quite sociable.

Miya was a calm and collected individual with a sense of honor that matched his own. But she also held a deep sadness close to hear. Maybe it had to do with her late husband? Whatever it was, it wasn't any problem of his, if Miya wanted to tell him it would be her decision.

Kagari... Kagari was... Ugh... Ichigo still wasn't convinced that was a dude, It was just too unreal. He looked like he was ripped right from the pages of one of the yaoi manga that Lisa was always reading while he was working on his Vizard training. The guy was just too damn bishie to be a man.

Uzume. Heh, Uzume was the party girl, always fun to be around. She had a good sense of humor and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, something Ichigo respected greatly. Too many people nowadays were habitual liars to conform to society and it was nice to see a rebel once in awhile.

Musubi. She was still Musubi. Dense as a stack of bricks but honest and loving to a fault. He really couldn't think of anything that better described her now that he was well and truly alone with his thoughts out in the middle of nowhere.

And the one hundred million yen subject of the evening. Yashima. She was quiet, too quiet. He really needed to find a way to get the girl out of the shell she had placed around herself. He couldn't stand the constant swirling emotions that the girl was feeding him and he had to figure out some way to either make her forget about the asshole or focus more on him. Maybe he could do something for her? Take her out on a date? Nah, that would just be awkward for the both of them. Treat her like a Sekirei should be treated? He was already doing that. Have sex wi- HELL NO! He wouldn't even think about doing that with her until she had opened up to him more and even then only if she wanted it. He still wasn't even sure if he _wanted_ to do that with either of them yet.

Some days Ichigo really hated being a virgin.

The Fullbringer rubbed his temples softly as the headache known as Yashima continued to pound in his skull. Aside from those three ideas he didn't really have enough to go on. He didn't know enough about her to give her a gift, and despite them being almost blindingly loyal to their Ashikabi, he couldn't just order her to forget Junichi and be happy. That would make him no different than Tsukishima and he'd sink even lower on the scum totem pole if he tried that shit.

Dragging his hand's from his temples to run his fingers through his hair back down to rub a kink in the back of his neck the Fullbringer knew he'd just have to play it by ear then. Get her to open up to him by being as he always was.

A Guardian. The comforting presence he was known for.

His next step was stopped when he noticed a woman sitting at a park bench along the concrete pathway on which he was walking.

The first thing he noticed was that she was nearly nude, wearing only a simple white button up t-shirt and what appeared to be a lab coat to cover her modesty... or lack thereof. Her state of dress wasn't nearly as bad as the state of the clothing itself. From the light of the few lamps that littered the walkway, he could see that the clothing had several deep red bloodstains on them, most of them in places that could be fatal if the girl didn't have the presence of mind to go to the hospital for it.

Speaking of presence... Ichigo blinked once before letting out a small groan of annoyance_ 'Another Sekirei!?" _If it wasn't mortal danger it was something else. It seemed that the universe loved messing with the Strawberry far more than it liked helping him. _'Best to get this over with now, at least I can make sure she's ok.'_ Sighing, the orange haired man approached the brown haired woman in front of him. _'Brown haired and beautiful'_ He amended quickly, as he got a good look at her up close. She seemed to have a curvy figure to match her exotic features as the bloody clothing she wore almost didn't cover her breasts. "Are you alright?" Ichigo walked closer, trying to get her attention. The woman remained silent but her eyes rose to meet his. The Fullbringer stopped in his tracks.

She had a large Sekirei crest on her forehead and the most striking slate gray eyes he'd ever seen. Those eyes seemed to bore right through Ichigo in a look of such deep despair that it froze him solid.

"Well isn't this a pleasant surprise?" A voice spoke up behind Ichigo.

The woman's eyes fell back to the ground, cutting off his view from that near crippling feeling of despair this woman was giving off.

Like the crack of a whip Ichigo's head snapped towards the voice, breaking whatever connection the two had at the same time as she did. Behind him and across from Akitsu was what appeared to be several Sekirei and their Ashikabi. From an initial power scan the girl on the left with the scythe was around third seat, the blonde girl in the back felt closer to lieutenant but wasn't much of a threat overall. But the final one, the one that stuck closest to their Ashikabi and looking like the oldest of the group was the strongest of the three Sekirei. A very strong, low captain class Sekirei and from the way the man stood in a calm and relaxed but ultimately battle ready stance left little doubt in Ichigo's mind that he was a skilled warrior.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Ichigo asked the boy who had spoken. And yes, he really did seem to be a child, barely fifteen at most. True, it was about the same age as when he had entered the world of Shinigami but something about this kid just seemed to set his bastard senses off. Maybe it was the way he held himself, his body relaxed in a self entitled and arrogant manner. Or maybe it was the smug smirk the boy had on his face. Either way, the kid was trouble plain and simple.

"My name is Hayato Mikogami, it's a pleasure to meet you." A smile spread across the young man's lips, though from the way he seemed to sneer at the same time it turned the normally genuine smile into a plastic an artificial insult " As for what I want, it's the woman behind you. My dear Akitsu there was injured earlier today and in a panic she ran off, we've been looking for her all day and I've just been worried sick." The boy laid the emotion on thick for this little performance, gesturing subtly with his hands and body to maximize the impact of his speech, a fairly basic tactic that was taught to actors to fool a crowd and make yourself seem more impressive than you normally were.

Ichigo wasn't fooled for a moment. "That's cute." Ichigo scowled, stepping backward a step to put himself closer to the woman he now knew as Akitsu in case Mikogami tried making a grab for her. "Now what do you really want with her?" He asked. It was kind of obvious what this kid was after, Akitsu was a Sekirei and a fairly powerful one at that by the feel of her Reiryoka. But his haughty attitude and rich clothing was a dead give away that this kid had money.

Money and children rarely ever mixed well and by the way the kid acted, it looked like he was as spoiled as Ichigo assumed he was. So used to getting his way that he'd ignore anyone and everyone telling him 'no' and just did it anyway and saying to hell with the consequences. He had the money and influence to make the events and anyone connected to them 'disappear.' if he wanted it to. Spoiled, selfish and corrupt and it was plain as day because Ichigo had seen it before, doing work for the less than reputable employers of Japan tended to show you the worst side of humanity, and Mikogami wasn't even close to being the worst that he had seen.

"Oh?" The boy seemed surprised but not overly concerned with the way Ichigo was scowling at him. "And what makes you think I want anything but to help Akitsu? She's very important to me."

Ichigo felt more than heard Akitsu's head lift up at those words as she regarded Mikogami with a withdrawn stare.

Hoping to stop that train of thought before it began he walked in front of the girls view of the man and scowled again. "Aside from the fact that you're an arrogant little brat that lives in your parent's wallet? Not much." Ichigo pointed to the three others behind the boy. "And you coming here with three Sekirei to just 'help' another Sekirei just reeks of foul play."

"Oh, The boy knows who were are?" The woman with the scythe chuckled. "You must be an Ashikabi then?"

"Quite." Mikogami agreed with her. "Are you after Akitsu as well then?"

Again Ichigo felt the girls eyes shift, but instead of locking onto Mikogami, she instead stared curiously at his back. However a look of anger found it's way on Ichigo's face. "You say that like you'd actually forcefully wing a Sekirei..." Ichigo's anger sharpened to a fine point. "You already have haven't you? How many?"

The boy across from him seemed strangely amused by Ichigo's reactions. "How many Sekirei do I own? Or how many have I taken?" The man's plastic grin returned "More than four, I'll let you guess the number of the rest of my collection"

_'Collection?'_ A shiver of disgust went up the Fullbringer's spine. Ichigo sent his gaze skyward, looking for something to blame for this travesty. _'God, Kami, Soul King, whoever the hell is up there. Do you enjoy sending these bastards my way? Do you WANT me to kill indiscriminately today or something? Because this is really starting to piss me off' _Ichigo's eyes dropped back to ground level and focused back on the main threat at hand. He really REALLY didn't want to fight a three on one battle.

Not only would he not be able to protect Akitsu which he had no doubt that he'd have to do to keep her out of Mikogami's grubby little fingers but he'd also have to use his full power to do so, which was overkill for a situation like this.

And killing the brat was out of the question since he really didn't want the blood of four or more innocent Sekirei on his hands. He may kill scum and monsters but the innocent was something he'd never stoop low enough to kill.

"Do you really intend to stand in my way?" The boy asked curiously as the captain class Sekirei placed a hand on his blade. "Do you really think a human like yourself can take on three Sekirei at once?" Mikogami seemed amused by that notion. "Move aside or Mutsu here will move you for me, Akitsu WILL be apart of my collection." There was little humor in his tone now, or that plastic smile on his face. Now he looked and sounded deadly serious and he wouldn't be denied his prize.

Or so he thought.

Ichigo took one step to the side, which surprised everyone there, including Akitsu. Before he took another, which put him right next to Akitsu, but also allowed Mikogami to approach her if he wished.

The boy blinked, surprised that Ichigo had actually conceded with his demands, not that he didn't think he wouldn't but it was a pleasant surprise regardless. "Are you really giving up that easily, from the way you talked to me before you seemed insistent on a fight?"

Ichigo scoffed. "I'm not a complete idiot. I know I can't fight you and your Sekirei alone, It's one of two reasons why I'm not going to fight you."

Mikogami smiled. "So you're not going to fight me because you're outnumbered? Smart, but what's the other reason?"

A crooked smirk appeared on Ichigo's face. "The second reason is something a certain shrimp of a woman said to me once back when I was still a brat like you."

The boy's smiled fell. "And just what did this woman say? Not to pick fights with your betters?"

"Hehehehee." Ichigo breathed a small laugh. "She might have told me that once or twice when she kicked my ass. But no, this was something she said before we even met, which she told me later on." A green light sprang to life around Ichigo's feet, growing in brightness as it built up speed. Ichigo's voice rang out low and even. _"We stand in awe before that which cannot be seen, and we respect with every fiber that which cannot be explained." _The light around Ichigo's feet started to hum as Ichigo reached a hand to grab Akitsu under the arm, which the woman didn't try to fight seeing as she was staring at the light around Ichigo's feet in wonder. "let's see a little awe and respect as you try to explain this Mikogami, now you see me" A wicked grin momentarily flashed across Ichigo's face.

The boy's eyes widening in realization. "Mutsu!" A blur beside him rushed forward to intercept.

"Now you don't"

The Sekirei's drawn blade struck home, only to pass through an after image as the green light around Ichigo's feet took off into the sky and shoot off into the distance.

Mikogami watched the light speed off in barely controlled rage, realizing angrily that the man had escaped him. "How dare that bastard steal from me?" The boy's face contorted in a snarl. "I WILL have Akitsu for my collection, mark my words." He knew that Ichigo was most likely long gone if that light was some special ability, maybe he was a Sekirei rather than an Ashikabi then? Pretending to be an Ashikabi to avoid people winging him? Whatever the case, Mikogami would not be denied his prize, he'd make damn sure of it.

_**-ooo-**_

The blur that was Ichigo leapt from building to building, Akitsu held in his arms and hanging on for dear life as he pin balled himself around. He had put almost two miles between himself and that bastard Ashikabi when he finally stopped and landed only a few blocks from Izumo Inn.

As soon as they touched down, Ichigo fell to a knee. _'I really need to stop putting so much energy into my Bringer jumps'_ he thought numbly, rubbing the back of one of his thighs for a moment trying to get the feeling back into it. After the fight earlier in the day, his own 'stroll' around the neighborhood and now this, it put a large strain on his human muscles to keep up that high level of speed over a long period. It just so happened that he had packed a _bit_ too much Reiryoka into that last jump and it had cramped his muscles up.

Akitsu, who had been silent since their meeting landed more gracefully than Ichigo had, landing in a small crouch before standing to her full height, to watch the strange man who had apparently protected her.

"Why?" She asked, her voice still quiet and sad. "Why did you protect me, I am broken."

Ichigo stopped rubbing his leg to stare up at the woman. "What do you mean broken?"

The woman turned her head, eyes squinting just slightly as she nearly spat out the words. "I...I cannot be winged, I can never find my Ashikabi. As I've said... I'm broken."

_'Oh...' _ The Fullbringer grimaced at the girls admission, he had felt the love and joy from Musubi simply at the prospect of finding her Ashikabi, that only increased by a factor of ten when she actually did get winged. _'Well, that at least explains why she's acting that way.'_ The man sighed, standing back up to his normal height. "I protected you Akitsu because it was the right thing to do." The girl glanced out of the corner of her eyes at Ichigo. "That man back there would have used you like an tool, he wouldn't have cared about you, he wouldn't have been your Ashikabi."

"But I can't have an Ashikabi." She replied sadly, walking over to a nearby bus stop bench to sit down and stare at the ground. "He would have thrown me away regardless, an Ashikabi has no use for a broken Sekirei."

Ichigo blinked. _'Wow and I thought my attitude sucked'_ shaking those thoughts away the Fullbringer approached the woman and sat next her. "You're not the only one whose broken you know." He replied gently, placing a hand on her shoulder.

The woman looked up, surprised by the gentle voice and even gentler touch.

"Hmph." A sad little smile appeared on Ichigo's face "For the past ten years, I've been running from my problems." He turned his head to look up at the full moon above him. "I was cursed. I always thought I'd be alone as well, since no one in the last ten years even tried to be more than just a casual associate. Hell, no one has even asked for my number so they could call me unless it was directly related to business." a small breathy chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head. "That changed when my first Sekirei, Musubi literally fell out of the sky and landed on top of me." Here he cracked a bit of a larger grin at the sheer absurdity of that information. "It was entirely an accident but it led to so much more.

The woman next to him, shifted uncomfortably, seemingly becoming more depressed as he talked about...ah, better fix that...

"Even if you are broken Akitsu" Ichigo spoke up, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small piece of paper, he then neatly folded the paper into quarters before ripping along the lines, creating 8 little squares. "All the pieces that make you up are still there." He held them up to show the woman who stared down at them curiously as she listened to Ichigo speak. "All you need-" He placed his other hand over the first, cupping the paper between his palms. A small green light swirled around his hands for a moment as he pulled on the papers freshly separated soul, pulling it back together. Opening his hand's he showed Akitsu the now mended sheet "-Is someone to piece you back together." He placed the paper in her hand to let her feel that it wasn't a trick, that the paper was indeed solid again.

Akitsu stared down at the whole piece of paper in mild shock, the words Ichigo spoke echoing in her mind. Was it really possible for her to be repaired? Who could do such a thing? Who _would_ do such a thing?

"I protected you because it was the right thing to do" The Fullbringer repeated. "Not because I'm some justice nut, but because everyone deserves the freedom to find that 'something' that they want in life and are willing to put their lives on the line to protect it." He stood up and placed his hands in his pockets. "It took me ten years to find that something, but I found it... or to be more precise, it found me..." He shook his head, mildly amused about the events that led up to Musubi's winging, it really was a random series of events that forced that encounter to happen. "What it really boils down to Akitsu is that you deserve the chance to find your Ashikabi. Hell, I'll even help you find them." He glanced over his shoulder at the woman to see her staring at him, eye's ever so slightly wider than normal. "Heh, I kinda made a promise to protect as many of the Sekirei as I could in this stupid game. That's really the only constant in my life, the fact that I never go back on my promises. That and the fact that I've been called stupidly dense for going to extreme measures to make sure I repay those I owe."

A small twitch of a smile appeared on the woman's face. "Do you really think I can find my Ashikabi?" She asked quietly.

He nodded "I don't doubt it for one second, I'm sure you'll find them someday."

Akitsu looked down at the paper in her hand a small blush on her cheeks. "Ah...I might have already found him."

Ichigo blinked owlishly at that comment... did she really just say what he thought she said? Did she really? Another one...? Well he wasn't known for doing anything half ass, might as well ask... "Do you want to be my Sekirei, Akitsu?"

The woman fiddled with the paper in her hand, seemingly shrinking into herself, her blush growing larger by the second. "Ah ...I may be broken but...maybe ...yes?" She turned away from him trying to hide her embarrassment.

Adorable, that was the first word that came to Ichigo's mind. Ichigo smiled warmly and offered her a hand to help her up. "I'd be honored to be your Ashikabi Akitsu."

"Ah, and you as well...Ashikabi-sama." The woman's face lit up as she grabbed Ichigo's hand. The words coming from her lips seeming like a joy, like a dream come true for her.

Well, now that he thought about it ...it kind of was. All Sekirei dreamed of finding their Ashikabi, he could only imagine what it must have felt like for Akitsu to be unable to find that person.

Or maybe he could do more than Imagine... Focusing Reiryoka into his hand, Ichigo sent the charge of energy into the woman's body.

Two sets of eyes widened, one at the swirling emotions in the woman's body, the other at the hot warmth that was flowing through her hand, up her arm and spreading throughout her body.

Akitsu's pupils dilated as her breathing became irregular, she looked up to the man that had done this to her and couldn't help but notice that he looked to be in a similar state. She faintly registered a burning sensation in her forehead as she rose to her feet.

Ichigo on the other hand was receiving more than he bargained for when he opened the link to the woman's emotions. He could feel love and sadness, sure. But he also felt this intense hatred that seemed to permeate her being. Following the sensations of anger, Ichigo ended up at the mark on Akitsu's forehead, her Sekirei crest.

From what he could gather from her few memories on the thing, someone had screwed up during her adjustments and she accidentally winged herself before she reached maturity. Akitsu blamed that man for all of her misfortunes.

The Fullbringer went rigid when he felt Akitsu's lips on his own, then the sudden pull on his Reiryoka reserves forced a slight gasp through his lips. The pull that Akitsu was much more concentrated that Musubi's or Yashima's and it all went to one spot in her body.

Her forehead.

He could feel the direction his Reiryoka was traveling through her body, but it seemed to stop at the crest on her forehead and coalesce there, leeching out of the symbol like a spigot leaking water.

It was like she was wearing a chastity belt or something, keeping the influence of an Ashikabi out and away from the point where she could be winged.

And not only was that belt locked but there didn't seem to be a key for it either.

Akitsu leaned back from the kiss, a sigh of disappointment on her lips. She had still failed, even when she had reacted she still couldn't be winged. A few tears leaked down her cheeks as she lowered her head, too ashamed to look her Ashikabi in the face. Even now she waited for him to throw her away, to tell her she just wasn't worth keeping after all...

She felt a hand on her shoulder and tensed up. Here it comes. She looked up into Ichigo's eyes expecting to find anger or displeasure. She was both confused and strangely pleased that rather than having those expressions Ichigo had a look of confusion spread across his face, a small frown set firmly on his lips.

"Do it again." He ordered the woman, bringing her lips closer to his.

Akitsu blinked, but otherwise followed the orders and locked lips with him again. She felt the overwhelming warmth flow through her body again, but like last time the heat didn't seem to reach the point in which she could find release, it was so frustrating!

Ichigo wasn't paying any attention to this, or the emotions associated with it, he was ignoring all that and instead focused on the crest on the woman's forehead, watching as his Reiryoka met the lock. When he had locked lips with Akitsu again he had pushed quite a bit more of his spiritual energy through her than last time, equaling out to around a moderately powered Getsuga Tensho. Still the lock didn't budge

However.

Ichigo felt a slight give, where the lock seemed to stop funneling his Reiryoka out of Akitsu's body and instead stayed in front of the door, continuing to push against the restraints holding it there. A lock was only as good as it's shackle and seeing his Reiryoka stop for a moment and begin pushing against the lock gave the man an idea.

Rarely was he a subtle fighter, he tended to rush full throttle into a fight and just hack and slash as much as he could in the shortest possible time. Now, that mindset gave him an idea, a perfectly wonderful idea.

As soon as their lips broke, Ichigo grabbed the woman's face and crushed his lips against hers again.

Akitsu's eyes widened as she felt Ichigo take charge, a luminous blush breaking out on her cheeks. She made a small mewling sound as she felt that heat build up again, this time building more and more pressure than before.

Ichigo ignored the woman's soft cries, instead focusing another large ball of energy into the woman's body and sending it towards the lock. Removing his lips he placed another deep kiss on the woman's mouth, this time drawing out his Fullbring in the process.

Akitsu could barely gasp out as another surge of heat built up in her body, searing her insides with it's comforting warmth, her release building in her body but not quite reaching it's peak.

Pulling back for one more kiss, Ichigo mouthed out the name of his Fullbring at the same time his lips met Akitsu's.

That's when the woman felt something snap, her mind going blank as the release that had been building flooded through her all at once. To put it into words that would make sense, It was like slowly drawing back a bow, holding it at full knock for what seemed like eternity, then letting it fly. There was little time for her to prepare herself as the crest on her forehead shattered, the pieces flaking off into dust. Then a crest on her back appeared, filled with so much power that it blew the back of her shirt and coat off from the middle of her back up

Ichigo felt his Reiryoka speed through the woman's body, striking the large swirling mass that had built around the lock. The last surge of energy had the strength of a fully powered Getsuga Tensho. And like it's namesake the surge of energy struck the already stressed lock directly on it's shackle.

It shattered.

All at once his energy surged through the now opened gate, headed for the base of the woman's neck. Similar to Yoruichi's Shunkō, the back of Akitsu's clothing blew off, revealing the newly acquired Sekirei crest between the woman's shoulder blades. Then her wings appeared. A dozen ice blue stalactite like gemstones that stretched out to encompass the entire street, the refractive bevels in the ice-like wings sending glittering moonlight scattering across the surfaces of the buildings around them.

Then it was over. The wings faded, disintegrating into the moisture that made them up and evaporating into the atmosphere.

Ichigo and Akitsu stood there, leaning against each other as they took short ragged gasps of air, both drained of energy from the rapid fire winging.

_'Well' _Ichigo thought numbly. _'It only took the equivalent of like five Getsuga Tensho to do it.'_ He stared at the woman's back, at the Sekirei crest there. _'But at least it's done'_ He felt the woman in his arms sob in his grasp, Pulling her out to arms length he was surprised to find her crying. "Akitsu?" He asked with concern.

"I-I found you." She sniffled a little as she laid her head on his shoulder. "I don't even know your name but... you're my Ashikabi, ." She murmured, you could hear the happiness in the woman's voice when she said 'my Ashikabi' The words rolling off her tongue with an almost reverent tone.

Ichigo breathed a small laugh, tears of happiness were almost as good as a smile in his honest opinion. "You can just call me Ichigo" He laughed, rubbing the girls back gently. "Ichigo Kurosaki. And you're my Sekirei Akitsu."

"Forever and ever." She breathed into his shoulder, before passing out completely.

"Oof." Ichigo slumped as the girl went limp in his arms. Struggling to pick the woman up in a bridal hold the Fullbringer scratched his head in confusion. "I guess the winging took a lot out of her." Shifting slightly to get her into a more comfortable position Ichigo started walking back to Izumo Inn, feeling Akitsu's link in the back of his mind much like Musubi's and Yashima's. He was almost relieved when he realized that unlike Musubi's always positive emotions and Yashima's currently jumbled, sad ones. Akitsu's mind was calm and quiet, even if it was filled with love at the moment, those emotions were surrounded by an ocean of calm resolve.

The Fullbringer shook his head. _'At least I don't have to worry about going crazy with her as Sekirei'_ a small chuckle of amusement echoed out into the cold night air. A cold night air that was warmed by the comforting warmth in his arms.

_**-ooo-**_

_**Everybody think the chapter title wasn't obvious enough? lol**_

_**That's right, back to back Sekirei winging's, big whoop wanna fight about it? **_

_**I've wanted to wing Akitsu since the beginning so back off peoples. If ya'll be butthurt then I got a little rhyme for ya'll to enjoy**_

_I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. _

_Some come from ahead. _

_Some come from behind. _

_But I've bought a big bat I'm all ready you see_

_Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me -Dr Seuss._

_**That's right, I got a bat and I'm not afraid to use it! Like 20 of them actually... so step off yo or I'll pop a (lil) Slug(ger) in yo ass. (That actually sounds kinky now that I think about it :O )**_

_**Akitsu is one of my favorite Sekirei, so ya'll can piss off, it's not like I'm biased or anything... It's not like I have a thing for confident sexy women or anything... It's not like I love a woman who can give me a cold, sultry look that makes my blood boil or anything... It's not like ...ɪᴍ ᴀ ғᴜᴄᴋɪɴɢ ʟɪᴀʀ! (- **_๏_**_**_๏_**-)**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Sorry this took so long, I kinda took some time off to actually READ THINGS. So many fic updates and stories I've wanted to read lately but have been too busy to read or I've been working on my own stories which were plainly going nowhere as writers block hit my dangly man parts in barely controlled rage, forcing me into a small ball of pain, misery and indecision. Thankfully when I erased part of this chapter and changed a few things I was able to write a good portion of it in one sitting which got my writing flowing again.**_

_**Also, as a side note I had to help some of my family move into a new place so that took an ungodly amount of time as well, and it STILL isn't finished...**_

_**Some strippers might have also been involved at some point as well. You all know how that goes, right?**_

_**Alright then, first off let's just say HOT DAMN people like Akitsu, not that I didn't expect it since one of my reviewers was right when they said that she has a large fan base. And who wouldn't fanboy over her? She's like a Cloud cookoolander Rei Ayanami. Silent, Cold, Busty, Lacking any sort of modesty and regularly forgets to wear her panties. All she needs is a bacon version of that bondage suit of hers and I will get on my knees and debase myself before God and Country to marry that woman.**_

_**I've decided to cut back on the AN's today because I love you guys, even the flamers and critics. I've been kinda mean to you all the last few AN's so here's some furious lovin from the Haz man and a longer than normal chapter.**_

_**Now lets do this.**_

_**Fic o the day: **_Naruto's Compensation by DisobedienceWriter _**A story where Naruto loses a leg, still wants to be a ninja but the Hokage deny's him, this sets off a chain of events for Naruto to become not only the strongest Puppeteer in the world, but the strongest ninja in general.**_

_**Song/vid of the day: **_Never could have been worse from the Trigun OST_** This my dear readers is a classic. Back when Anime were epics of badassery and followed their own moral code of awesomeness. The only Anime for me in recent years that brought the nostalgia home quite like those bygone days was Gurren Lagann. If you haven't seen anime like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho, Outlaw Star, DBZ, Rurounin Kenshin... if you haven't seen at least one of these I will personally make it my life goal to find you, slap the bitch out of you, then sit you down in front of a TV to show you the folly of your blasphemous ways. I carry the holy scriptures in a CD case wherever I go so you can be damn sure of it.**_

_**Word/s of the day: **_Rhetorical. _**Don't know why, but I love this word.**_

_**Disclaimer, I don't own Bleach or Sekirei, the people who own it, own it.**_

_**-ooo-**_

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

_Flashback_

**Narration/machines talking**

**"Hollow talking"**

_**'Hollow Thinking'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 6: A Friendly Spar and Talking Tree's**_

The morning light of dawn peeked through the open curtains of Maison Izumo's window's, the rays of light hitting a certain Fullbringer right in the eyes.

"Ngh." Ichigo groaned, Shifting slightly in his semi awareness. A sigh escaped the Fullbringer's lips as he felt a wonderful softness surround him on all sides, the comforting weight and heat of several bodies lying next bringing him out of his slumber...wait...what?

Ichigo's eyes opened blearily, to take a good look at his surroundings. He could feel Musubi on his left again, still dressed in the nightgown she had worn during the apartment attack. Her breasts (or his arm) had wandered again last night and were again enjoying their place around said limb. A quick glance to his stomach confirmed that Yashima was there, dressed in one of his white T-shirts, on her making the shirt look like a small dress due to the size difference. A small frown appeared on her face as he shifted a bit to get comfortable, she seemed to move away from him but at the same time grab hold of his side harder than before. Ichigo grimaced a bit at the girls grip, apparently she was still feeling conflicted about him being her new Ashikabi, he'd have to try and speak to her today and at least see if he could fix this somehow. Sending a mental feeler down to make sure little Ichigo was playing nice Ichigo turned to see why his right arm felt so heavy...only to find himself staring into Akitsu's slate gray eyes.

Ichigo blinked, ah... last night was a thing... riiight. "Umm, good morning Akitsu..." He greeted the woman, the event's of last night coming back to him clearly.

The woman regarded him for a second, shifting slightly on his shoulder to get a better look before turning her head slightly to the side, a small blush apparent on her pale cheeks. "Ah..." Her eyes flicked to look at him again, the blush growing. "Good morning Ashikabi-sama."

Well that was odd, why was she blushing like... That's when Ichigo felt something different about how his right arm was situated. He followed the line of Akitsu's blue nightdress, something that she had borrowed from Musubi to sleep in. Let's see... chest, stomach, hips... annnd he found his hand resting right smack dab between the girls legs, a strange wet feeling on the tips of his fingers.

Ichigo's breath cut off in a short strangled noise as he quickly pulled the now damp hand as if he'd been bit (Really bad analogy in hindsight) from where it had somehow found itself in the night and wiped it off on his night shirt. Ichigo's turned away from the woman, face heating up in embarrassment. Thinking quickly Ichigo tried apologizing to the woman. "Uhhm, s-sorry about that Akitsu, I d-didn't mean for that to happen."

"Ah." She blushed again, looking away from him as well while shaking her head imperceptibly "It's fine, I liked it."

Ichigo's eyes snapped back to just stare at the woman in shock, jaw dropped and swallowing the lump that had found its way into his throat. He had to be the luckiest bastard in existence right now. Sleeping with three women next to him, two of them wearing skimpy nightwear, and the other clearly enjoyed the accidental situation that they'd found themselves in.

Hell, Akitsu had essentially given him enough to work on that he could, in theory, consider it consent to take it to the next level. Too bad he still didn't know if he wanted to do that with his Sekirei yet, damn indecisiveness!

Ignoring the incessant feeling that the universe was doing this just to mess with him, Ichigo extracted himself from the tangle of bodies, carefully moving Yashima into Musubi so that the fist Sekirei could cuddle with the weapon type. It helped that Yashima's expression had smoothed out after he stroked the girls back, relaxing her enough so that neither of the girls would wake for at least a little while.

Ichigo glanced over his shoulder at Akitsu, a curious thought at the front of his mind. "Akitsu, last night I gave you a pair of Musubi's panties to wear, what happened to them?" How the hell had they come off during the night? He took a quick glance around the room and noticed the panties were wadded up next to the dirty clothes hamper.

"Ah." She tilted her head to the side in a thoughtful expression. "I forgot." She replied after a long pause.

Forgot... more like took them off...

"..." Ichigo stared up at the ceiling, glaring a hole in it and hoping that he could will whatever deity that was fucking with him to burst into flames using his mind. They sat there and stared at each other until Ichigo lowered his head sighing in frustration. _'I just know fate is taunting me now, three hot women, one of whom WANTS me to take advantage of her... I don't know whether to hate or love my life right now...'_ Whatever the case, now that he was awake he helped Akitsu into one of Musubi's shirts and pant's, the size just a bit too small surprisingly but it was all they had until they could go shopping again.

The smell of something cooking in the other room tipped Ichigo off that Miya had started breakfast and the wonderful aroma was making his stomach grumble in protest. Ichigo snorted in amusement, he was beginning to sound like Musubi. Shaking his head, he got dressed himself and walked out of the room, Akitsu falling into step behind him.

Following the smell out into the hall they passed Uzume in the living room.

"Morning bro." She greeted. "So how's Akitsu doin?"

Ichigo nodded to the woman in greeting. "She's doing fine, I'm just glad you guys didn't mind me bringing a complete stranger here." He tossed a thumb over his shoulder at the woman in question who was shadowing his every move.

Uzume blinked, leaning over slightly to see the woman behind Ichigo. How the heck hadn't she seen her? "Morning Akitsu" The snow woman nodded her head like Ichigo had done before in greeting. She turned her attention back to Ichigo. "It's not like Miya would have tossed you out on the street for helping someone anyway, that would be kind of hypocritical of her own behavior."

"I heard that." Came the melodic voice of their landlord from the Kitchen.

"Doesn't make it any less true" Uzume shot back cheekily.

"Oh?" Miya peaked her head out from around the corner of the doorframe leading into the kitchen, a small eerily happy smile on her lips. "You seem to have forgotten your panties again Uzume." A dark aura sprang up causing Uzume's eyes to widen and her skin to pale drastically.

"C-calm down Miya, I-it was just a little slip, y-yeah that's it." She slowly scooted as far away from the woman as possible before taking off at a full run back up to her room.

The dark aura around Miya dissipated and the smile evened out to a small smirk as she watched the panty-less woman run off. With a sigh she shook her head. "I swear, that girl never learns."

"You know." Ichigo pointed out. "It's moment's like that I can understand why you were called a hollow."

Miya turned a questioning look on the man, a single eyebrow raised. "Oh?"

"That aura of yours is dark." Ichigo held a hand to his chin a thoughtful expression on his face. "It's similar to that of a Hollow's but different... it's definitely around lieutenants seat in power but strangely more dense."

"Oh?" She repeated again, this time taking a pensive pose while her voice took on a somewhat playful tone. "I don't know what you're talking about Ichigo-san."

Ichigo blinked. Wait what? "You mean you don't know you're releasing large amounts of Reiatsu in a miasma of killing intent behind your back?" Ichigo worded it like a question but strangely enough he felt it was more of a statement than anything else. The small Cheshire grin the landlady gave him made him roll his eyes. "Oh, so it's like that eh?" She was going to play dumb around him, Uzume and Kagari. She probably did that regardless anytime anyone asked her about her Reiatsu technique and it was only the fact that he wasn't exactly normal by human _or_ Sekirei standards that she had even had that conversation with him the night before. It was childish... but most likely all in good fun. He may have never been a participant in those kinds of mind games but he always found it fairly amusing when his classmates did it to each other.

"Breakfast will be ready in a moment Ichigo-san, Akitsu-san." She nodded politely to the two, leaving the room with the smile still in place. The two sat down at the table, wondering what was taking Uzume so long to find a pair of panties, she was just as bad as Akitsu... actually no scratch that Akitsu was worse... or better if you considered why she... yeah need to stop that line of thought right there.

Ichigo shook his head and waited for Miya to bring in breakfast when the door to the front of the Inn opened and in walked a tired looking Kagari.

"I'm back." He replied with a yawn, slinking into the living room to plop down at the table and lean back comfortably. The white haired man yawned sleepily several times as he surveyed the room, taking note of Ichigo and Akitsu. He nodded to the former and blinked a couple times lazily as he stared at Akitsu. "Who's this?" he asked dully, leaning on one arm.

"Akitsu." Ichigo replied, the woman next to him giving a small dip of her head in greeting. "She's with me."

"Eh, it's none of my business." He shrugged, eyes flicking over to meet Akitsu's slate gray orbs. For a moment the two of them stared at each other. One in a blank stare, the other in minor curiosity, a curiosity that quickly turned to horror and a small amount of fear as Kagari and secretly Homura, the guardian of unwinged Sekirei's eyes sharpened in recognition while focusing on the woman's appearance. Now that he was paying attention he could feel the woman's power, and pared with her features he could guess who it was that was sitting only a few feet away. The Sekirei in front of him was number Zero-Seven Akitsu, a scrapped number and possibly one of the more dangerous Sekirei in the Plan. The white haired man tensed, his body no longer showing the tiredness that had been there but moments before.

Ichigo seemed to pick up on the man's sudden tension as he also tensed, leaning forward and glaring at the male Sekirei. "Is there a problem Kagari-san?" He spoke in a growl.

The self proclaimed guardian of unwinged Sekirei glanced his way, a small frown marring his face. "N-no, nothing's wrong Ichigo-san." The two shared a tense silence as they slowly got to their feet, ready for a fight if need be when suddenly a dark aura of malice filled the air.

"Ichigo-san, Kagari-san. Fighting in Izumo house is strictly...Prohibited."

The two turned their heads, one mechanically the other in abstract curiosity to see Miya standing in the kitchen doorway, wielding a ladle and a dark aura surrounding her with the beginnings of a what appeared to be a hollow mask poking out from behind her.

Homura started sweating, beads of moisture rolling down his back as he turned slowly to meet Miya's closed eye grin. Chuckling nervously the man raised his hands up, all manner of ill will towards Akitsu forgotten in the face of the growing need to maintain his extended existence in life. "W-we know Miya-san, it was just a m-misunderstanding, r-right Ichigo... Ichigo?" The man turned his head to get reassurances from the Strawberry when his entire world froze.

Ichigo was standing next to Miya, staring at the dark aura surrounding the woman, gently prodding the half mask that was formed behind her. With an almost clinical detachedness the Fullbringer grabbed a hold of the mask and pulled on it.

Pop!

Miya blinked and turned her head to see Ichigo standing there with the mask in his hands, staring down at it curiously. Then, seemingly satisfied he looked up at Miya and tilted his head, a single eyebrow raised. "Why didn't you tell me you had a hollow mask?"

Miya blinked again. Kagari blinked as well, a vague feeling of dread building in his stomach.

Ichigo frowned and took another look at the mask. It was composed of Reishi as far as he could tell, most people wouldn't have been able to even come close to touching the thing normally but with his Fullbringer powers he was able to actively handle the thing. What's more, Miya's Reiatsu was around high Lieutenant to low Captain at the moment, so, while it was uncomfortable and made a mild sweat appear on his skin, it was nowhere near as bad as facing down Kenpachi was, nor was it even a fraction of what Ullquiorra's once was when using his segundo etapa. Sure, he could feel that she was holding back quite a bit from what he could feel of her reserves, but that was besides the point, for anything of low captain spiritual power or less without any previous exposure to high amounts of Spiritual Pressure it would be absolutely terrifying. Which, he noticed, was the exact response that Kagari had, locking up tighter than a virgin girl in a house of ill repute. Akitsu on the other hand had widened her eyes slightly, hiding her body behind the short table as much as possible.

"Scary." She murmured quietly, just loud enough that everyone could hear her in the deathly quiet room.

"Ok nobody panic!" A sound of running feet could be heard from upstairs along with the voice. "I found some pan-" Uzume grabbed hold of the door frame into the living room, sliding on the wooden floors on her socks, only to freeze when she noticed the dark feeling in the room. "-Ties..." The girl finished, looking back and forth between Miya and Ichigo, who, to her utter horror was holding the cursed item that haunted her nightmares on stormy nights...and most other nights as well.

She let out a strangled noise before her eyes rolled up into her head, passing out completely on the living room floor.

"Ara?" Miya tilted her head in confusion now, the mask and Aura disappearing.

Homura joined Uzume in blissful unconsciousness.

_**-ooo-**_

"Why am I doing this again?" Ichigo scowled, standing across from Miya in the courtyard a wooden bokken in his hand and a similar weapon in the woman's delicate grasp.

"Because you were the poor bastard crazy enough to grab Miya's Hannya mask?" Kagari supplied from the sidelines, joined there by the other members of Izumo Inn.

After that little mask grabbing incident, and Kagari and Uzume were woken up, (screaming shrill screams while doing so.) They all, including Musubi, Yashima and Akitsu had sat down to a tense breakfast. In Ichigo's opinion it was one of the most uncomfortable meals he'd ever had. Mainly because Miya had gotten over her initial confusion and was now staring at him with an intense expression, jaw firm and a small grin on her face, like a wild animal about to attack and devour a hunk of fresh meat.

After the meal was finished Miya had calmly asked Ichigo to meet her out in the yard for a small spar. Apparently that was Miya speak for prepare yourself to die as both Kagari and Uzume had frozen at the way Miya had phrased her words. Kagari had sat back on his heels to prepare to bolt at a moments notice, Uzume was muttering something along the lines of 'Crazy bastard actually touched it.' and joined her fellow Sekirei in fleeing preparations. Frankly the way the two were acting sent a small chill down his spine, like he had caught the interest of some here-to-fore unspoken creature of the deepest pits of Hell.

"Go on Ichigo-sama!" Musubi cheered next to the others on the veranda, watching the soon to be duel to the metaphorical death... at least he hoped it was metaphorical, actual death would kind of suck at this point... Well, at least he had moral support...

"Ah." Akitsu spoke up in what Ichigo was beginning to understand as a verbal tic. "Do your best Ashikabi-sama." And that makes an even two for his side, now for a possible third nod of encouragement in the face of death?

Yashima, watched on in a detached silence, a small smile on her face. Maybe she was actually starting to accept him a little bit? Maybe... but he'd still have to get the girl to open up more, she had been far more outspoken from what he could tell when they had fought before. The least he could do was bring the girls fire back to her.

"Un, Ashikabi-sama" The quiet blond nodded her head slightly, showing that she was behind him as well.

Well then, Hero level set to maximum. Now let us face this beast head on!

Ichigo faced his opponent with a look of utter confidence on his face, both hands gripped on the bokken in his hands in a basic Zanjutsu stance.

Miya's eyes twinkled as she got into her own stance, an uncharacteristic predatory grin touching her lips.

Oh crap... ohcrapohcrapohcrap...

The first thing he felt was the wind blowing by his cheek as his instincts told him to tilt his head ever so slightly to the side. Which was a good thing as he found Miya's bokken occupying the space a moment later, sending a small breeze out from its edge.

Ichigo's eyes widened. _'Fast, is Miya really going all out on me?'_ She was currently about half as fast as his full power speed, but that level was still nothing to scoff at while he wasn't using his full powered form and Ichigo didn't really like that scenario one bit as he brought the edge of his blade up and knocked the woman's sword high. As the blade rose Miya drew her sword back preparing for another lunging strike as Ichigo's instincts told him to dodge.

Another lunge and another dodge, this time joined by a parry as the Fullbringer turned to the side and allowed Miya's bokken to slide along the length of his. With a twist his blade was sliding along the length of Miya's sword, on a direct collision course with the woman's face.

Miya's eyes widened as she raise the back end of her bokken up, blocking the strike and grinding the forward momentum to a halt.

Ichigo, wanting to put as much force behind him, pushed down on the woman's weak stance hoping to throw her back.

Unfortunately Miya anticipated this and placed a hand on the back of her bokken, holding the taller and heavier man off as the two separated, both eyeing each other with a larger amount of respect than before as understanding of how skilled they both were came to a shocking clarity.

In the blink of an eye the two were back at each other's throat, wooden blades clacking against each other in a harmony that sounded as much a song as a battle. A gutting slash from Miya was dodged by a small step back, then Ichigo stepped back in to deliver a strike on the woman's collarbone, only for another loud clacking sound to echo out, signifying the wooden sword met it's twin again in a solid guard.

The Fullbringer stepped forward into the woman's personal space, taking one hand off his blade and grabbing her clothing by hem and prepared to throw her, barely sliding under the woman's attempt to (Somehow) decapitate him with her bokken and flipped her over his shoulder in a throw that would have at least winded most as they struck the ground.

Not Miya apparently as the woman flipped mid-air to land in a crouch. She raised her sword up again and blocked the overhead swing as it came, moving to the side to let Ichigo over step himself and go off balance. The Fullbringer had prepared for this and dug the tip of his sword into the ground and as Miya went for a debilitating strike to his shins the man leapt over the attack, vaulting over his sword and landing behind the woman. Pulling his weapons tip out of the dirt, Ichigo brought it up to block a strike at his head, the two blades crossing in an almost cliche battle stance, the two blades pushing against each other and locked in a stalemate.

On the sidelines the spectators were silent, eyes widened at how the two were fighting.

"Holy shit." Kagari breathed, the white haired Sekirei watching as the two broke the clench and proceeded to go into the intricate dance of blocks and strikes that this 'spar' had apparently devolved... was that even the correct word for this? No, quite frankly the dance (And that's all it could be considered at this point) 'evolved' into something greater as the two rushed forward again, meeting attack for attack and blocking when they could. So far no one had made a solid strike on the other, mere glancing hits, wooden kisses that if it were a real blade would have barely left a scratch on otherwise unmarred skin.

Uzume stared in awe as well, and a small bit of fear as she watched an ordinary human go toe to toe against one of the strongest, if not the strongest Sekirei in the Plan. Sure, she was going easy on him but apparently so was he as neither of the two were even breathing hard at the moment. It quite frankly frightened the girl to think that a human could fight on par with even one of the weaker Sekirei, skill and power bordering on superhuman to anyone who didn't know any better.

Musubi... she was just chewing on the knuckles of her gloves in barely controlled glee as she watched her Ashikabi fight, apparently she'd gotten over the fear she'd held for her Ashikabi when Junichi had tempted the Fullbringer's ire. Now she was just enjoying the fumes of battle permeating the yard and rocking back and forth hoping to one day spar with her Ashikabi like Miya was.

Akitsu was silent as she watched her Ashikabi. A small raising of her eyebrows betraying the surprise and awe she felt just being in the prescience of the two skilled sword users. Sure, she had felt the man's strength and speed the night before when he had rescued her. _This_, was something entirely different. This was a test of skill and speed, both of whom seemed to be evenly matched in at the moment despite the handicaps that both were likely fighting under.

Yashima blinked several times as the fight in front of her unfolded. She wasn't surprised by her Ashikabi's power, she had experienced his wrath first hand and even now the man's hard eyes bored into her mind like the grim reaper preparing to take it's next victim. Only the soft caring eyes she had seen when she had awoken to her new Ashikabi had kept the girl from flinching away from the fight as a whole. Right now she felt the emotions through the link, as all his Sekirei did on some level. She felt the exhilaration, the rush of combat flow through her Ashikabi's veins. In a moment of clarity the girl realized that he was actually _enjoying_ the battle, much like she would have if she had been fighting another Sekirei. So, with a curiosity born of wonder and a small amount of fear she watched her Ashikabi block another strike from Miya as she began pushing him back with raw power.

Ichigo grit his teeth as he ran more Reiryoka under his skin, supercharging his Korra and stopping the woman's advance. She had progressively been getting stronger and faster as the spar carried on, forcing the younger man to reinforce himself with Reiryoka, or risk losing before he ever began.

He could tell he was being tested, being pushed into fighting harder than what he was willing to show. It wasn't that he blatantly showed off his powers to everyone, or even tried to go beyond what most humans were capable. Normally anything that deserved his full power ended up dead or incapable of telling the tale but other than that he preferred to stick within the realm of human ability for the most part. If a master swordsman really looked at the fight that he was was currently participating in, they could tell that it was all well within human ability... well, human's who had spent decades in their craft yet were still young enough to apply those skills in high speed combat, but that was beside the point.

Miya had most likely felt his power on some level, felt it on par with her own and she was now pushing him to whatever limits he had. Him fondling her Hannya mask had probably just been a plausible excuse for her ire, but right now he could see the curious gleam in the woman's eyes. She had seen his potential the night they had talked and was testing him, she was slowly ascending the scales of what could be considered human and was pushing him past that into the superhuman category.

Then his back hit a tree.

_'Fuck.'_ He cursed mentally only to freeze up for a second as a crying child's voice echoed through his mind.

_'S-omeone...P-please help me'_ It whispered sadly.

_'Wha-'_ He felt a minor burst of Reiryoka coming from the tree before the connection snapped, bringing the man back to reality, only to see the tip of a wooden bokken inches from his face and about to make contact.

Brown eyes turned honey golden for a single moment as his own bokken came up, a fraction of the very tip meeting the blade in an inborn instinct that had been beaten into him by countless opponents. One hand came off the handle and a large amount of Reiryoka focused in the tips of his fingers as a single hand shot out at the same time as the blade of Miya's bokken smashed into his shoulder, slightly weakened by his block and missing the decapitation shot that would have happened had it been an actual sword and had he not blocked how he did.

Surprise echoed through the Sekirei spectators at the loss but none were as loud as Musubi. "Awww Ichigo-sama was beaten." The girl started to pout when Kagari's words froze everyone.

"No, look again." The white haired Sekirei nodded to the bokken wielding pair, from their angle they couldn't quite see what had happened but both Ichigo's and Miya's eyes rested on the hand right under the landlady's chin. The thumb was tucked into the cup of the hand while the four fingers were sticking straight out in a nukite. It was a variant of a standard nukite strike he had learned years ago from one of his more esoteric martial arts teachers. For a skilled martial artist who had mastered the technique they could break boards and puncture watermelons with ease. For a Fullbringer practically thrumming with bringer light reinforced limbs?

He could have probably dented half inch steel plate.

The woman's larynx along with anything underneath it would have been crushed, Sekirei or not, sending the woman down into a choking heap to die a very slow, gasping death. Though, he wouldn't have been much better off with a cleaved shoulder blade, probably biting into any number of major arteries and veins underneath the bone. He would have probably died quicker from blood loss than the time it took the landlady to expire from asphyxiation

"A draw?" Uzume blinked in surprise, not quite able to grasp how something so unlikely could have happened.

"Seems like it." Kagari agreed, in his own mind the fact that a human could even match a Sekirei in combat staggered the man. A hand reached up to idly scratch an itch on his chest, only to stop and twitch for a moment as he registered the action. "Seems like it." He repeated again more quietly, standing up and walking back to his room.

"Th-that was _awesome_ Ichigo-sama." Musubi leapt from her sitting position over to her Ashikabi and proceeded to grab his hands and hop like an excited rabbit with them clutched in her own. "Can we spar now, Ichigo-sama?"

Ichigo, for his part suppressed a chuckle as he watched the excitable girl bounce up and down, the action causing an interesting reaction from her chest. The fullbring shook his head in amusement, seemingly barely out of breath despite the fight he'd just been in. Idly he ruffled the girls hair, a small smirk on his lips. "Sure Musubi, I'll spar with you."

"Are you sure you should be doing that right now?" Miya questioned while nodding at his shoulder, a sharp little hint of curiosity in her voice. It seemed she had found something she was interested in during that little spar of theirs. "You received a nasty hit, can you fight without further injuring yourself?"

Ichigo snorted, adjusting his shoulder a few times. "Yeah, it's just a bruise. It should be good as new in a couple days, right now it's just a little sore."

"Very well." Miya gave Musubi a stern glare. "Don't go hurting him Musubi-san."

A muttered "And now he's fighting another one." came from Uzume, who was still in her own little world.

Musubi hopped back and brought her fists up just below her chin like a boxer, taking a few test punches and hopping from foot to foot a few times to loosen her muscles. "Alright Ichigo-sama!" A small grin formed on her lips. "Let's go!"

_**-ooo-**_

"Owwie." A few hours after the spar we find Musubi sitting in a large Japanese style bath, rubbing one of the numerous bruises on her body from where her Ashikabi had struck her, one particularly nasty one along her upper back where he had used an elbow strike to know her off balance.

"Miya told you to take it easy." Uzume sighed, leaning against the opposite side of the tub. "It's your own fault for taking it so far that Ichigo had to knock you out." She shook her head and chuckled. "Though it's still pretty crazy t hat he can knock out a Sekirei to begin with."

"Yeah, my Ashikabi is strong if he can... wait." Musubi blinked and tilted her head cutely while placing a finger to her chin. "How do you know about Sekirei Uzume-san?"

Uzume grinned and turned to show the woman her back where a Sekirei Crest stood out on her flushed skin. "Cuz I'm a Sekirei too, I'd be a pretty bad one if I didn't know what I was."

Musubi's eyes widened in surprise, then a small grin formed on her lips. "Oh!" Water splashed as Musubi leapt to her feet, stark naked as the day she was born to raise her fists, preparing to fight the Sekirei across from her.

Uzume stood and raised her hands as well, but instead of a hostile one she chose to raise her hands in a calming gesture. "Hey hey hey, what are you doing?"

"I'm gonna fight you!" Musubi spoke happily. "Ohh I've wanted to fight another Sekirei after my last battle didn't turn out so well." The girls grin widened . "I'm Sekirei number Eighty-Eight, Musubi. A fist type!"

"That's adorable." Uzume spoke quickly, waving her hands back and forth. "But didn't Ichigo tell you to relax and not try to fight or anything after he smacked you around?"

That seemed to stop the girls impending rush for a moment as her face which had been set and primed for combat, twisted in confusion. A her bottom lip poked out as she sat back down in the water. "Ichigo-sama did say that...I guess. But I really wanted to fight you." She whined wiggling back and forth with a angry pout.

_'Disaster averted...for now'_ Uzume sighed. "Musubi, even if we did fight, I'm pretty sure-" A shiver went up the girl's spine. "-Pretty sure that Miya would have stepped in to stop the fight."

Musubi stared at the woman across from her for a moment before letting out a cute little sigh. "Alright... I won't fight you-" A playful little smile formed on her lips as she lunged for Uzume.

The other Sekirei's eyes widened comically as she was tackled into the water.

"-That doesn't mean I can't tickle fight with you!" Water splashed into the air as a pair of girlish giggles rang out.

_**-ooo-**_

Brown eyes glared a hole into equally brown tree bark as Ichigo stared at the tree that Miya had pushed him into earlier.

_'S-omeone...P-please help me'_

Those words echoed in his mind as clearly as the moment he heard them. It was a child's voice, that much he was certain but one that he'd never heard before.

"Heehee-Musu-hahahahah-Stop it-hohohohooo!" Ichigo blinked, then turned to stare at the bathroom window on the second floor bath where Musubi and Uzume's giggling could be heard.

The Fullbringer shook his head. "Don't even want to know." grumbling as he turned back to the tree. It was odd how he had felt that strange Reiryoka enter his body, it felt like... he couldn't quite place it, it felt almost like something was growing inside him, like a plant. Of course given that he was backed up against a tree at the time it was entirely possible for that to be the case. Maybe it was another Sekirei? One that could control plants? Eager to test that hypothesis the man placed a hand against the tree trunk and channeled his Spirit Energy into the bark. Almost immediately he felt the power return, almost like sonar to reveal a small trace of energy left behind by whatever it was that had tried to contact him.

_'S-omeone...P-please help me'_

That was definitely the message hidden within the energy, curious to see how far this idea could be taken the Fullbringer channeled even more energy into the tree before blasting it outward in a wave that traveled along the roots out into the ground. It was only a few moments later that he got a response.

_'H-hello?"_ The same child's voice seemed to ask.

_'Can you hear me, what's you name?'_ Ichigo asked within his mind, hoping that whatever form of communication this was would be able to transmit his thoughts.

_'Yes! Yes I can!' _The girls voice took on an almost ecstatic tone as she felt the reply. _'My name is Kusano. P-please, can you help me?'_

_'What kind of help do you need?'_ Ichigo asked curiously, although his thoughts were decidedly serious as he felt the girls apprehension and fear through the mental link.

_'T-there's a bad lady looking for me, I don't want her to find me.'_

_'And where exactly ARE you?'_

_I-I'm in a garden. I need help, I've been hiding and -eep'_ The connection cut off there and a large amount of Reiryoka flared through the link, idly Ichigo felt more than heard a massive quake off in the distance. It was a fairly long distance off he noted with a growing apprehension. if he could feel it this far away then something catastrophic had to have happened wherever the girl was.

_'Kusano! can you still hear me!?'_ Ichigo yelled into the link. All was quiet for a moment before the little girls voice came back in.

_'Y-yes, I-I'm fine, the scary lady almost found me. I-I used my power to keep her away.'_

Ichigo blinked, then stared off in the direction the quake had come from. _'My god, that was caused by her?' _he wondered idly before cursing when he felt the girl nod in assent, apparently his mind wasn't quite so private at the moment.

_'I'll find a place to hide, could you come help me mister, the bad lady is scary.'_

The Fullbringer breathed deeply, the was definitely a Sekirei he was talking to, her Reiryoka feeling decidedly similar to his own Sekirei and if someone was chasing after her then this girl hadn't been winged yet and someone was trying to forcefully wing her. Anger flared up in the Man's chest as he felt the girls apprehension only heighten. She was scared, alone and hunted, something he wouldn't stand happening to a child, Ichigo remembered all to well Nelliel and her condition stuck in a little child's body, barely able to protect her self. This little girl may have power but whatever was chasing her was tenacious to chase her for more than a few hours. Coming to a decision the man nodded his ascent.

_'Yeah, I'll come help you, you need to stay hidden and don't let the bad lady find you, ok?' _Ichigo sighed when he felt the girl nod again.

_'Don't worry, Kuu is good at hiding!'_

_'Good, I'll come get you as soon as I can'_

_Promise?'_ The girl sounded strangely hopeful there, like she was putting all her faith in him. Him, a random stranger and this little girl was waiting for him like a knight in shining armor.

That thought brought Ichigo up short. He wasn't feeling anything from his fullbring right now so it didn't mean that he 'had' to protect the girl, it's was as if his Fullbring's silence was meant to test his resolve, his dedication to his namesake. Another small burst of fear from the girl decided it, taking a deep breath Ichigo answered her. _'I...I promise. Now go hide, Kuu-chan I'll find a way to come and get you soon.'_

_'Thank's mister.'_

_'Don't worry about it, oh'_ He added as an after thought. _'And It's Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki.'_

_'T-thank you Ichi-san.'_ And like that the link went dead as the girl presumably went and hid.

The Fullbringer sighed turning away from the tree to walk back into the house.

"Something the matter Ichigo-san?" Miya, walked out from where she had apparently been watching Ichigo essentially 'talk' to a tree for the past ten minutes.

Seeing no reason to lie to the woman, despite the fact that she might think he was going a bit nutty in the head, he told her the truth. "A Sekirei contacted me through contact with that tree over there, apparently she's in trouble and that quake you no doubt felt earlier was due to her using her powers."

The purple haired landlady nodded grimly. "I knew something was strange when your guard dropped during our spar earlier, when I forced you into that tree your eyes glazed over for a second and a small burst of energy entered your body." She pointed to the tree he was just touching. "A similar energy came from the tree just a few minutes ago and peaked during that quake so it wasn't hard to assume." Her face went blank for a moment as she watched Ichigo's face go through several emotions all at once. " You plan to go rescue her ?" A nod answered the question. "Then I will not stop you, but do you even know where she is?"

"She said something about a garden" He supplied. "A you can guess which direction it was in." Ichigo pointed in the direction the quake had come from.

Miya's eyebrows came together for a moment in thought. "That would be in the direction of the Shinto Teito Botanical Gardens. A place owned by MBI so it's definitely a possible place for a Sekirei to be."

"If she's there then I'll go there to save her."

"My, how chivalrous." the woman lifted a hand to her lips to cover a small chuckle of mirth.

"It's my namesake." He chuckled along with her. "I wouldn't be much of a 'He Who Protects' if I couldn't do something as simple as rescuing a damsel in distress."

"So you wouldn't" The two shared a small laugh together as the walked back into the house.

"You two are rather chummy." Kagari spoke up from his place in the living room, sitting at the table while watching the news.

"Just a small joke between sparing partners, Right Ichigo-san?" The woman turned a small smirk on the man in question

"Right." He nodded.

Kagari stared at the two, glancing back and forth between them. "Yeeeah whatever, you two should see this." He pointed to the TV where several reporters were standing in front of a large atrium, only this atrium was filled from floor to ceiling with large trees and shrubbery. It looked like a jungle had sprouted out of nowhere and had taken over the confined glass structure.

"Well it seems you were correct in your assumptions Miya-san." Ichigo spoke up, pointing behind the reporters to a sigh that hung on the wall of the building. "That is indeed the Botanical Gardens."

"So it seems." The landlady sighed.

Kagari blinked, and did his double take routine between the two of them. "Did I miss something?"

"Yes actually" Miya answered dryly. "Ichigo-san was contacted by the Sekirei who did that." She pointed at the jungle filled atrium. "She apparently wishes for him to rescue her. The real question however, is what are you going to do Homura-san...?"

"Miya!" The now named Homura hissed, looking between her and Ichigo quickly.

"Oh shush." She waved his anger away. "He already knew that You, Uzume and I were Sekirei before he even came here." She turned to Ichigo. "Homura-san here is a guardian of unwinged Sekirei, he uses the name Kagari to hide his real identity so that he can do his job." She turned a glare on Homura, who was leveling his own glare at Ichigo. "If he wanted to do anything he would have already done so Homura-san."

The white haired Sekirei grimaced, a hand rising up to scratch at his chest. "I was right then." His glare sharpened. "You aren't normal."

The Fullbringer raised an eyebrow, a small snort escaping his lips. "You have no idea."

Kagari grunted and turned back to the television. "I guess I'll have to go out again tonight, Miya."

"You'll have to forgive him Ichigo-san." Miya apologized. "He hasn't been winged yet and he's just a bit... cranky."

"I am not cranky, Miya." The man in question threw over his shoulder. "I'm just cautious." Unseen by the other two, but visible by the way he tensed he his shoulders the man grunted angrily. "When you see a Sekirei getting forcefully winged you tend to be a bit more cautions then most."

Ichigo was about to say admit that he could technically free a Sekirei from a forced winging, only that they'd have to be winged by him or someone nearby for them to actually be freed from their previous Ashikabi, but then a bit of practical sense kicked in and his mouth clamped shut. He really, really didn't want to have to explain that the method to initially free a Sekirei was to either neutralize the Sekirei or kill their Ashikabi... and that would be kind of uncomfortable to explain seeing as most Sekirei considered their Ashikabi second to nothing, even their own well being. No, they probably wouldn't take well to that information at all.

"Regardless of that" Ichigo pointed out. "I'm going to go help Kusano. The girl asked for my help and I'm going to give it to her."

"Number one-hundred and eight, Kusano." Homura mused. "The last of us to be adjusted." he man was silent for a moment before seemingly coming to a decision. "Alright, I'll join you in your little rescue operation, We should probably go at night to dodge the reporters and camera crews."

"Mmm" The Fullbringer nodded, stealth would be their ally this time, thankfully there was probably only one Sekirei that they had to worry about being ther-

_Beep beep beep_

Ichigo's train of thought stopped as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. It was a rather standard thing, just a common flip phone really. It was a new one he had just picked up to replace the old one he had, it was something he had a habit of doing when he left his previous place of employ, seeing as he had made quite a few enemies from taking less than scrupulous job's from even less than scrupulous clients, he tended to draw trouble like a magnet. So he'd always get a new phone under a different name when he had to move. This was his... fourth time doing that if he remembered correctly. Aside from the reasons to change phones this one wasn't that special, it was really just a standard cell phone: A small camera and screen to take pictures or receive text messages on them, which was what he had just gotten. How was that even possible? he had just bought the the thing a few days ago on that shopping trip with Musubi.

Flipping open the phone he punched a few buttons and read the text. As he did so his face only grew darker and darker as anger clouded his features. "That motherfucking son of a bitch! he is so dead." At the pair of Sekirei's questioning looks the man flipped the phone around so that they could see the message.

_-Hey there everybody, Minaka here and I'm here to bring you some good news, there's a little Sekirei out in the Botanical Gardens just waiting to be winged. Which one of you will get the Green Girl first hmm? ;D -Minaka Hiroto_

"You're right." Homura growled small wisps of smoke rising from his hands. "He is dead." The now smoldering Sekirei glared at Ichigo, daring him to point out that they had agreed on something. "We'll do this at nightfall, but if you do one thing that I don't like-" The smoking hand burst into flame. "You'll be visiting the burn ward in the near future." With that the flames went out and he turned to go get ready.

"I need to get ready as well Miya-san." Ichigo made a small bow before turning on his heels and walking towards his room.

"Look after yourself out there Ichigo-san." Miya waved to him, receiving a small wave over the shoulder back. A small blush appeared on the woman's face as her voice came out in a whisper. "Be careful."

_**-ooo-**_

_**BAM, nother one bites the dust.**_

_**OK, like I said above, sorry this took so long, shit happened and it's still happening, I just found some time to write this over a period of like a week. for those of you who are reading my other stories, sorry if I haven't updated in awhile. Again, shit's been happening. So until then, enjoy the next chapter.**_

_**Oh and a question. Should Ichigo free and wing Yomi? Ichigo has said he'll protect as many Sekirei as he can, that means keeping them out of the hands of evil bastards like Mikogami and his ilk, soooo should I free her? or is she just a bitch and Yashima is enough? I actually feel kind of sad for Yomi since she's treated like trash by Mikogami before AND after she was terminated...**_

_**Soooo, I'm on the fence about this. Kuu is definitely going to join Ichigo's as of unsaid quote-unquote "Flock" I just love the way she interacts with the other characters too much to even think of removing her. So again, yay or nay? I'm willing to make this a "Mass Flock" So that this can get really bonkers at some point. The perv in me wants to make this some diabolical game of pokemon with Ichigo's slogan being "Gotta guard/protect em all" but then the rational part of me imagines that being a bad idea.**_

_**Right now my Pervy side and my rational side are locked in a deathmatch and they've got each other by the balls. So it's up to you guys and ladies to decide how I do this.**_

_**EDIT: changed the "Gotta catch em all" line because people didn't think that fit with Ichigo's personality... It was a joke people... changed it to better fit his personality but still retaining the general joke atmosphere.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**I have no excuses for why this is late except that I had severe writers block. Most of it frankly stems from a certain review posted in the middle of last month on the first chapter of this story by a reviewer named tinybird02.**_

_**In his review he made a few points about Musubi's character that I both agree and disagree with. He was also a bit... aggressive with his review, I don't mind that. Reviews that discuss things in a reasonable or at least semi-reasonable manner I can easily deal with and discuss it with you. Don't be afraid to leave a review on "Why this sucks" I don't mind those, that just tells me what I'm doing wrong. You can NEVER go wrong trying to improve yourself, even if I don't take the words to heart I still read EACH and EVERY review that's posted. So again, I have no problem with that kind of review.**_

_**I DO however have a problem with people spoiling things in a story I was at the time of that review currently reading and not up to that point in the story. If you guys are currently reading Ninth Sekirei Pillar by Arthain then steer clear of tinybird02's review until you've caught up with the story.**_

_**In his review he spoiled a certain thing about a certain character in that story and it frankly PISSED ME OFF. DO NOT DO THAT. He made that comment as a suggestion of what to do with Musubi's character in this story, as a possible way to take her character in that direction.**_

_**I will say this now, DO NOT SPOIL THINGS LIKE THAT. It actually pissed me off so bad that I DROPPED Ninth Sekirei Pillar and went into a deep writers block because of it. I would have continued reading but he spoiled it in such a way with that specific information that it completely KILLED my fanboner for everything. If I had come across the information in the story I have no doubt I would have kept reading, JUST like I did when I first watched Gurren Lagann. For those of you that know, after episode 8 I was prepared to dump the series, but then I watched the next episode and continued because I liked it. If I had known what happened in episode 8 without watching the first seven episodes I most likely would have never watched Gurren Lagann, you know why? Because of preconception. If I know what's going to happen, the emotional impact is nonexistent and you don't endear to that character or event, it pushes you away rather than drawing you further into the plot. When you know something happens, ESPECIALLY when it's something bad, BEFORE it happens, it just kills immersion and you cant feel for the character.**_

_**So I say this again. DON'T SPOIL THINGS. I left tinybird02's comment alone because he was entitled to his opinion and I already warned him once, but if anyone else does this crap I'm flagging it for removal. Spoiling things like that can be construed as a kind of abuse if I read the TOS right, perfectly justifiable in it's removal. Be courteous to your fellow readers or someone's going to get gibsmacked.**_

_**On a semi related note, in reparation for my extended absence from this story I've made this chapter longer than normal. No seriously, this chapter is a BIG BITCH. 14K words decked out in glitter and neon. The longest chapter that I've done, EVAR! I just didn't know where to stop really :/ SO ENJOY!**_

_**Fic o' the day: **_To Shape and Change _**A very interesting story. Just read the summary.**_

After helplessly watching the murder of his son by the hands of the civilians he had sworn to protect, Minato Namikaze breaks inside. When the god of Death offers the chance to walk among the living once more, he accepts. Only catch is, he has to live in the body of his son, Naruto Uzumaki. How will the world change with the Yellow Flash taking his sons place? ((No pairings.))

_**The only part of that that I have any problem with is the ((No pairings.)) thing. The author has made several good points on his profile about that, but personally I could see Minato ending up with another woman in Naruto's body. I mean he IS going to be living the rest of Naruto's natural life in that body. And judging by how old Mito Uzumaki lived to be it's safe to say that will be a LOOOOONG time. I think the conservative estimation of Mito's age at the time of her death was like 100 something and she looked just shy of her 70's, I've no doubt Naruto could live longer than that. Hell, he doesn't even have to marry someone, all I'm concerned about is Naruto having a blood legacy since he's one of the last Uzumaki and by extension Senju since those were cousin clans as well.**_

_**But that's just me and my opinions nibbling at my ankles I guess...**_

_**Song/vid of the day: **_Hate the Day - Behind the Scenes _** An interesting song I found watching an AMV. The AMV is called **_√Bestamvsofalltime ▪ Ash (Пепел) AMV _**if you wanna look for that as well.**_

_**Word/s of the day:**_ Gastromancy - Telling fortune from the rumblings of the stomach._** The name actually made me think of something else lulz...**_

_**Disclaimer, I don't own Bleach or Sekirei, you should all know this by now.**_

_**-ooo-**_

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

_Flashback_

**Narration/machines talking**

**"Hollow talking"**

_**'Hollow Thinking'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 7: Rescue.**_

Cold, pale moonlight reflected off of the crystalline surface of Shinto Teito's Botanical Gardens, the reflected light casting an ominous glow on the ground in front of the half dozen people staring down on it from one of the buildings surrounding the gardens.

Ichigo stood, clad in a construction of his fullbring which had a similar appearance to the clothing of the Onmitsukidō Punishment Force. It was a trick he picked up during his time working for his less than reputable employers when he needed to do something in a clandestine manner, the cloth itself was made of his black Reiatsu and was similar to his clad type Fullbring when it was still in it's immature stages. The fabric also seemed to shift in the dim light, every so often a tongue of black energy would lick out from an edge like a wisp of smoke.

The Fullbringer scowled as he stared over the edge of the building at the destruction below. Dozens of trenches had been gashed out of the surface of the walkway leading into the gardens and several APC's that had carried MBI soldiers were cut entirely in half. Clearly it was done by some form of blade, but it also showed a severe lack of compassion from whatever Sekirei had done this, the injured soldiers lying in pools of blood around the APC's only drove that point home further.

He then turned to his Sekirei, whom he'd brought with him on this little rescue mission.

Akitsu stood directly behind him, like a second shadow, ready for any orders given. She wore the same blue nightdress she had slept in last night, simply because she didn't have any clothing that would fit her in the house, So the slinky little piece of fabric would have to do until he could get her something more... substantial. At the moment the ice Sekirei had used a small ice blue sash wrapped around her midsection to keep the lacy little number closed in the front, but doing so only lifted her breasts up more and allowed the front of the dress to billow dangerously open if it caught the wind just right. She hadn't considered wearing anything under the dress except underwear, seeing as it was a rather long dress that hung down to her knees. Thankfully, it preserved her modesty...what little she had anyway.

Musubi stood behind him and to his right hopping on the balls of her feet as she tried to contain the excitement she had bottled up since their last fight. She was dressed in her normal Sekirei uniform.

Yashima, she stood behind and to his left holding the giant hammer she had used in her battle against him in a comfortable grip over her shoulder. She also was dressed in her battle casual, except instead of a school girl shirt she had instead chosen to wear a plain white T-shirt. She was also lacking the hairband that she had worn during their battle, letting her bangs hand down in her face slightly, it gave her a more mature look overall.

And while technically not his Sekirei, Homura was standing directly to his right, frowning through the face mask that hid his face from view. Ichigo had been a surprised and a little shocked when the Fire Sekirei had walked out of his room decked out in what could only be considered Matrix-esque. A dark black shirt that swept back into a long coat and dark black skin tight pants that hugged his body like a glove, under the shirt-cloak was a normal white button up shirt but that was the only normal thing about the androgynous man's clothing.

Regardless of what they were wearing, each and every one of them were prepared for battle.

"What's the plan?" Homura asked, glaring down at the destruction.

Well maybe not entirely prepared for battle.

Ichigo glanced over at the flame user. "Seeing as someone already knocked down the front door, I guess we go in through the front, kind of pointless trying to sneak in now." He held out a hand, his Fullbring held with the skull facing outward. "_Protectors Honor"_ he intoned quietly, the handle of the blade coalescing in a small swirl of black Reiatsu while the blade slid out of the metal plate like a spring loaded switchblade. Unlike before however, a small white arm guard formed around the black Reiatsu fabric of his wrist, signifying a greater use of his fullbring. Ichigo turned to smirk at Homura who had stared at the blade in mild shock.

"Why are you so comfortable doing that in front of other people..." Homura shook his head. "I've never even heard of super powered humans being real. Why are you so cavalier about this?"

Ichigo glanced at his sword then back to Homura a couple times before shrugging. "Eh, you're all supernatural aliens who can control the forces of nature, that's about as abnormal as it comes, so it's not like I really gotta hide anything from any of you."

Homura blinked. "You really aren't normal you know that?" The flame Sekirei grumbled.

Ichigo snorted. "Yeah, and I'm damn proud of that, now try to keep up." Ichigo nodded to the three girls behind him. "Let's go." before he disappeared from their sight, a small line of green trailing down towards the ground.

"You heard Ashikabi-sama!" Musubi hooted, hopping off the side of the building and landing in a crouch far below.

Akitsu had already disappeared, only a flash of ice and mist signifying her departure. Homura glanced down towards the ground, she could be seen standing in her usual place behind Ichigo who was now down at ground level as well.

Yashima stared down at her Ashikabi then turned slightly to smile somewhat sheepishly at Homura for a moment before leaping after the others.

The flame Sekirei deadpanned for just a moment as he watched the foursome hop off the building without a care in the world. "I'm surrounded by idiots..." A deep sigh echoed into the night. "And I'm one of them." Just before he too joined the others on the ground.

A half minute later and the five had made it to the front gate, Ichigo stopped for a moment to check the pulse's of several of the guards, a frown marring his face. "They're hurt, pretty badly too." He turned back to Homura. "They might be ok If we can get them some help soon."

"MBI sends recovery teams to handle that sort of thing after a fight" He replied. "The quicker we handle this the faster they'll get here."

Ichigo nodded. "Right, lets go."

"Hold on just a second whydoncha?"

Ichigo along with the rest of the group stopped and turned to see who had called out to them.

Twins... or at least that's what they looked like... Surprisingly it wasn't the lightning twins that Ichigo had knocked the stuffing out of before.

They were both girls with blue-grey eyes and long blonde hair done up in pigtails that hung to the side of a heart shaped face. Each was dressed identical as the other with thigh high black stockings covered by black high heels, the black dress they each wore was divided down the center by a bright neon yellow stripe, in fact the only key discerning feature between the two was the weapon that each chose to use.

One carried a bullwhip, the other held strands of... wires? Moonlight flickered across the hair thin metal like a shiny piece of glass as the girl who wielded them walked forward with her sister.

"What do you think Mitsuha?" The one with the wires questioned. "You think we should play with these chumps?"

The twin with the whip smirked at her sister. "Sure, sure Mitsuki." The girl flicked her whip, the head cracking the ground where it struck. "Ashikabi-sama only said to play with a couple of them though."

"Ichigo." Homura glanced out of the corner of his eye at the Fullbringer. "Go on ahead, I can take these two."

Ichigo's sword twitched as his hand moved into a more battle ready position. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." The flame Sekirei grunted, lighting up a pair of small fireballs in his hands. "These two aren't a threat, just go protect Kusano." He started to turn back towards the sisters when a thought struck him. "Oh." His eyes burned for a moment as he glanced over his shoulder at Ichigo. "And don't you dare wing her without her consent, or we'll be having a nice little chat after this is all over."

The Fullbringer nodded. "You don't have to worry about that." He turned on his heel and rushed off into the jungle like atrium, his flock not far behind him.

"Not a threat, eh?" Homura turned back to see the two sisters giving him the evil eye.

"If it's one thing that pisses me off, it's people like you." Mitsuha sneered at the man. "Over protective lions, too big and stupid to know any better." He eyes trailed after the other group. "And that strawberry over there is just as bad."

Homura stiffened when Mitsuki took a step forward, her wires flashing dangerously.

"Try not to die too quickly now." She waved cheerfully, the wires in her hand flashing forward to cut deep troughs in the cement around Homura.

The flame Sekirei leapt back, launching the fireballs he had conjured at the whip twins.

The two barely dodged the attack as it exploded the ground in front of them. They hopped back to their original position, swatting away a few of the small chucks of debris the explosions launched their way. "Nice try matchstick." Mitsuki crowed, taunting the man to attack. "Try something a little stronger why dontcha."

Homura's eyebrow twitched at the unflattering insult as the flames in his hands flared up to encompass the rest of his arms. "Gladly."

_**-ooo-**_

Ichigo and his flock continued on past the gate, the distinct sounds of explosions popping off behind them, though they were less concerned about that and more concerned with how thick the vegetation was within the building. The ran in silence for the most part, dodging the vines and low hanging limbs as they made a beeline through the greenery maze.

Surprisingly, after nearly a full five minutes of silence, it was Yashima who spoke up. "D-do you think Homura-san will be alright Ashikabi-sama?" She asked quietly, glancing over her shoulder every so often at the explosions that they had kept to their rear to make sure they were going in the right direction.

"He'll be fine" And he would be, from what he could tell, both of the girls _barely_ registered as a lieutenant each on his ascending scale of threat. "He's alot stronger than both those two combined." The Fullbringer waved over the back of his shoulder calming the girls fears while silently pleased that the girl had opened up a bit to voice her own opinions, it must have been the thrill of the unknown that all of them felt, the adrenaline high, the sheer uncertainty, knowing that you were in an unknown place that had a high probability of combat. That alone had opened her up some.

Then fate just had to piss all over it.

Ichigo's eyes widened as an explosion of noise and light erupted in front of his face, instinctively he strengthened his body with Kōra and flashed back several feet with a bringer jump to protect Yashima and Musubi, idly noting that a thin sheet of ice had formed between him and the bolt of energy.

With a crack of shattered glass the lightning bolt that the attack had apparently been crashed upon the ice wall, blowing it and several unfortunate shrubs nearby to tiny little pieces.

The Fullbringer mouth dropped down to a small line as he stared in the direction the attack had come, that could have easily killed them all if he and Akitsu hadn't reacted as quickly as they had. Now he watched as a strangely familiar set of faces appeared out of the forest ahead of them.

"Damn, so they came out of that without a scratch, huh?" That brought an angry twitch to Ichigo's brow, they were trying to kill them, or at least injure them severely? He stared at the two women and one man who had appeared from the darkness. The two twins (and yes they were twins he idly noticed, seriously what was it with twins tonight? ) were wearing a stripperific set of S&M outfits, one a dull maroonish purple while the other was a dark purple that bordered on black, both were fairly curvy under the spandex-like material.

He also recognized them as the two bimbo's who tried to deactivate Musubi his first day in Shinto Teito.

His hand rose to point in their direction. "Hey, it's you two bimbo's again." Not very subtle, sure, but it got the job done.

Twin angry remarks and pointed fingers returned.

"Ah, It's YOU!"

"You're that BASTARD from before!"

Both girls faces had reddened with anger as a slight hum of energy filled the air.

"Now, now girls." A light slap was heard from behind each of them and their faces drained of color, they turned as one to stare blankly at the man between them, who had slapped and was now cupping their quite generous derrieres.

The two stiffened before glancing at each other, seemingly coming to an agreement as they nodded at the same time. The slight buzz of noise turned into an angry sizzling sound as the pent up electricity coursed down their arms and into the hapless pervert who'd decided that coping a feel on two dangerous and outright lethal Sekirei was a good idea.

"*Cough* Can't say I didn't deserve that one *Cough*" The man let out a comical little puff of soot as he coughed, wiping his clothing off and straightening his frizzled hair. "How you doin?" The man asked casually, waving a bit as he walked closer.

A vein twitched just underneath the Fullbringer skin as the man that had been standing behind the two Sekirei (Who wasn't sizzling and extra crispy for some odd reason) walked forward. He looked vaguely military with the brown military pants and boots, along with the brown aviator jacket he wore over the plain white T-shirt on his chest. True it could have just been a fashion statement but Ichigo had fought military before and the man had this look in his eye, a sharp little glint even though he had a wide comforting smile on his face. The man actually reminded him a bit of Ginjo in his dress and attitude, though there wasn't that underlying threat from the man like he had felt from the sword Fullbringer. True, he was cautious but who wouldn't be in the current situation?

"Fine." Ichigo answered at length when he realized the man truly wanted that kind of answer. "Was doing a lot better before the two strippers behind you tried to fry me and my Sekirei."

The two lightning twins let out an indignant squawk as the the man in front of them grinned, waving off their anger. "Got a sense of humor too." He rubbed a slight bit of scruff on his chin cheekily. "Name's Seo, the girls behind me are Hikari and Hibiki." The man eyed Ichigo for a moment, taking in the overall stance the man held. "So who are you and what brings you to this neck of the woods?" The man's eyes hardened slightly as they took on a calculating gleam. "Besides the obvious of course."

"Ichigo." He spoke evenly, bringing his sword forward threateningly. "I'm here to protect Kusano."

The man's grin dropped into a small frown. "And are you going to try an wing that little girl?"

Ichigo didn't say a word, he could tell that the man in front of him wasn't going to let him pass and his Sekirei were going to be a nuisance as well. Ichigo grit his teeth angrily. He was wasting time, he could feel Kusano not far off and her Reiryoka was fluctuating in such a way to represent panic. "Akitsu." Ichigo ground out as said woman appeared in front of him like a wraith made of ice. "keep them busy, if they flee, let them. If they prove to be a problem, come to me."

"Yes, Ashikabi-sama" The woman stepped forward, a small satisfied smile on her face at her first order from her Ashikabi.

Knowing that the woman would follow his orders to the letter due to the unwavering loyalty he felt through the link, he turned away from the twins and their Ashikabi, Musubi and Yashima following close behind him as they turned to leave.

"Hey, wait a damn minute." Seo approached Ichigo, careful to keep an eye on the blade in Ichigo's hand.

The Fullbringer didn't even dignify the man with an ass beating, he cooly turned to glare at Seo, placing a fairly large amount of Spiritual Pressure squarely on the man's shoulders.

To his credit and Ichigo's surprise, the man actually withstood the energy, but a deep trench formed between his brows as the two tufts of hair nearly met in concentration and a grimace appeared on his face.

"W-wha-t the h-hell are you?" Seo gasped, breath coming in ragged, fearful gasps as he backed away from the sword wielder.

"The real question." Ichigo frowned as he expanded his senses around Seo. "Is 'what are you...'" The Fullbringer eyed the man up and down, feeling the small pool of energy inherent in the man's body. It felt... odd. Something other than a soul reaper, hollow or Quincy and yet it wasn't like his Fullbringer powers either. "Why do you have Reiryoka?" He asked cautiously, in all his years he'd only ever encountered five types of individuals: Humans, Shinigami, Hollow, Fullbringer and Quincy. Now that he had found the Sekirei that added a sixth bullet point to that list. However, Seo didn't seem to fit any of those models since his power appeared to stem from, but was the exact opposite of a Sekirei's. Ichigo preferred to air on the side of caution in such situations.

"L-like it's a-any of your damn business." The man breathed harshly, fighting against the spiritual pressure that was pushing down on him. Not that he had any idea what Reiryoka was but it was the thought that counted.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at the man, a small twitch to his eyebrow the only sign of his annoyance. He didn't have time to screw around with this, if Seo was a Ashikabi he'd see the man again eventually. "Musubi, Yashima." The two girls in question appeared behind him, snapping to attention at their Ashikabi's commanding tone. "Let's go." He ordered , never once taking his eyes off of Seo.

Seo on the other hand was doing his best to even keep eye contact with the man... no, 'monster' opposite him. _'It feels like I'm being crushed at the bottom of the ocean'_ He nearly gagged, pupils shaking to keep eye contact with the Fullbringer until finally, gratefully, Ichigo broke eye contact and ran off into the trees, his two Sekirei following close behind. Seo collapsed to his knees. _'W-what the hell was he?'_ The man didn't even have time to contemplate the mystery as a Ice shard slammed into the ground near his head, nearly giving the poor man a heart attack as it missed him by inches.

"Seo!" He almost felt relieved when his girls landed next to him, launching several lightning bolts towards Akitsu, who waved her hands, throwing up another wall of ice to block the attack before spines of ice grew from the flat crystal surface, all aimed right towards them.

"Shit!" Seo blanched, pulling his girls behind a tree as Akitsu snapped her fingers, sending several waves of ice shards towards the trio. _'Dammit, if that's how powerful the Ashikabi is, what the hell are his Sekirei made of?'_ Just then a rather large ice spike cracked through the other side of the tree bark, the razor sharp tip passing between Seo and Hikari's nose.

"I think it's time for a Norito." She spoke dryly, eyeing the ice icicle with a touch of fear.

The Ashikabi nodded. "You don't have to tell me twice, let's do this while we still can."

"What about the girl?" Hibiki asked, throwing another bolt of lightning from behind the cover of the tree, watching as it cracked against another ice shield.

"There's nothing we can do about her now." Seo yelled as another hail of ice shards landed around them. "Best we can hope for is that bastard actually being a nice guy and not forcefully winging her."

The two twins looked at each other solemnly as they grabbed their Ashikabi and pulled him into a rough kiss, his hands curving around to roughly grope their breasts as he did so, which earned him a slap from each of them when they finished.

As soon as their lips left his an aura of electric yellow energy burst from both Sekirei, forming a protective cocoon around the trio as the two girls spoke their chant.

_"We're the pledged thunderclap."_ The two girls clasped their hands together, forming a ring around Seo. "_No disaster will hit our Ashikabi"_ Their lead clasped hands shot forward as their rear hands rose almost like they were preparing a dance, the buildup of electricity around them clearly spoke of other intentions, however.

Akitsu's eye's narrowed a hair as she stared at the giant ball of power forming in the girls' midst. Mist coalesced around the woman's feet, preparing an icy defense or frigid retaliation.

"Take this!" The twins roared, unleashing an absolutely _massive_ bolt of electricity that dwarfed the previous initial bolt by several magnitudes.

The snow woman's narrowed eyes snapped wide, a hand flashing forward, the mist in front of her instantly freezing into a thick wall of ice, the hand then lowered to point at the ground. An icicle wide enough to stand on stuck into the ground. Moving as quickly as a ghost the ice Sekirei stood atop the icy platform which then lifted up like a catapult to launch the woman through the air towards the lightning twins, leaving the bolt to slam into her barrier behind her, punching through it like tissue paper. Apparently where one Sekirei was unable to break through her barrier, two Norito powered Sekirei could.

"Shit, she dodged it!" Hibiki cursed, pulling her hand and her sisters along with it to refocus more energy into a blast. They succeeded in a way, launching of a powerful but substantially weakened bolt before they had to break away from each other in opposite directions, canceling the Norito in the process.

Akitsu raised her hands, a ball of ice forming like an egg shell around her as the construct plowed through the lightning, cracking in several places before it shattered against the ground between the lightning twins, allowing Akitsu to leap free of the debris. Casually flicking both hands out while she was in midair the woman sent several more ice shards in the twins direction. The twins returned in kind with miniature bolts of lightning from their fingertips which exploded against the ice in dozens of miniature sparkling light shows.

"Sis!" Hikari raised a hand and flashed a couple of gestures her way. Hibiki nodded in turn and the two began building energy, the lightning in their hands charging the air between them and subsequently the air around Akitsu which caused the tips of her hair to stand on end.

Feeling the power behind this attack a small frown formed on the ice woman's face. Frost coalesced around her arms quickly, encasing the limbs like gauntlets.

_"Karitachi No Ikazuchi!"_ The energy between the twins rose above Akitsu, flashing once as sound and sight was drowned out in the subsequent thunderclap of the lightning strike.

Seo peeked his head out from behind one of the trees nearby, a tree that had been peppered with ice shards he noted absently as he watched the smoke from the blast rise into the air. "Did that get her?" Another set of ice shards met his question as they struck the tree next to his head. Color drained rapidly as his eyes went from the ice shards to the clearing smoke.

Akitsu stood in the blasted remains of forest the twins had targeted for their aerial strike, hands held above her head almost like she was cupping something... almost like she had blocked the attack with her hands...

That revelation, however wasn't as terrifying as the vicious looking constructs of ice that her hands had become. Each arm was covered from shoulder to fingertip, and where her hands should have been were now large gauntlet-like claws made of clear ice, each finger of which was easily a foot long and razor sharp. If you looked closely enough you could faintly make out the outline of her hands underneath all of the ice.

"What the hell!" "How'd she survive that?" Both twins were gaping in shock, while not their most powerful attack, it was still enough to put down a Sekirei from the teen numbers in one hit. While not as powerful as the single numbers, the teen numbers still had a bit more power than most Sekirei due to their cruder methods of adjustment, it was only around the thirties that the normal level of adjustment became standardized. Though, a few here and there retained a bit more power even up into the triple digits.

To have survived that kind of attack.

"She couldn't be..." Seo backed away slowly, sending a couple of feelers forward, using his own brand of 'power.' What came back stopped him cold, literally. The woman in front of him had power similar to Homura, the fire Sekirei that his girls had run into on more than one occasion. If that was the case then... "A single number?"

Akitsu lowered her claws slowly to her sides. "Number zero seven, Akitsu." She spoke detachedly, like this entire battle was beneath her, and in some ways it kind of was.

"We need to fall back!" Seo yelled, grabbing Hibiki's hand as she flew past him Hikari not far behind the two. The trio heading in the opposite direction of Ichigo's group in the hopes that Akitsu would take her Ashikabi's words to heart and let them go if they retreated. After a few minutes of silence where no dagger-like ice shards followed them, the trio felt safe to hug each other like the little girls they all were.

Yes, even Seo, who happened to grope the two actual girls there, thereby prompting the two girls to shock the crap out of him for being a perverted letch. They then proceeded to snuggle the smoking ball of pain their Ashikabi had become, nearly crying at how close they had come to pissing off a true single number. There would be plenty of "Thank God we're alive sex" after they got back home, the girls would make sure of it... right after they checked to make sure they hadn't inadvertently turned Seo into a girl with that last shock

That scream of pain had been rather girly in their honest opinion...

Meanwhile Akitsu stood back in the clearing from the battle, waiting for any sign of the trio returning. After another minute of silence the woman was satisfied that she had driven the threat off like her Ashikabi had asked of her. With not much else to do the woman turned on her heels and took off in the direction Ichigo had gone, hoping that she could be of more use than just a simple distraction next time.

_**-ooo-**_

"Getting real tired of this crap." Homura grumbled, dodging another web of wires that whipped their way around him, his fire barely heating up the strange heat resistant metal.

"Oho? a little sluggish are we 'matchstick?'"

The flame Sekirei's blood boiled again at the annoying nickname. it had been almost fifteen minutes now since Ichigo and his Sekirei had disappeared into the overgrown forest behind him, and in that time he'd had to dodge, feint and outright burn his way through both girls attacks. They were as relentless as they were annoying.

The flame Sekirei ducked, the whip that passed overhead barely missed taking his head from his shoulders before he had to hop back several times as another wave of wires lanced out like snakes to cut through anything between him and their wielder

The man cursed as he built up a large circular ball of fire before launching it directly at his feet as he hopped into the air. The blast exploded only a half dozen feet from him, the pressure of the large beach ball sized fireball pushing him away and giving him some much needed breathing room between him and the two sisters.

"Aww, what's the matter, don't like to play rough?" Again the women taunted him, though they were smart enough to close in on him as a team. Homura glanced down at his hand as it sparked a couple times before flaring to life. If only his powers were more stable he'd have won this fight by now but apparently tonight just wasn't his night and the troubles with his powers were biting him in the ass.

If only he could find his Ashikabi this wouldn't be an issue right now. The flame Sekirei's danger senses blared as he jumped back again as the wire wielder's weapon tore a deep gash where he'd just been standing. _'Fight now, mope later'_ He focused, pouring far more power than was advisable into his hands.

Turning his attention back to the fight the man's power flared to life around him. "You want me to play rough?" He growled, narrowing his eyes. "Fine then, _Enryū__!" _ A conflagration of fire swirled around his legs before taking on the semi solid appearance of a dragon made from red hot flames.

The two girls gulped audibly, though it was drowned out by the roar of fire that built up in front of them.

"Taunt this!" Both hands shot forward, egging the construct of flame onward towards the two women.

"Sis!" The whip user urged.

"Yeah I know!" The other yelled, both turning on their heel to leap behind a nearby damaged ATV and cowering as the flames buffeted against the metal surface. Tires melted, the little glass that was on the large machine cracked under the intense heat and the metal on the side facing Homura glowed white hot.

Finally the deluge of fire ceased, leaving the area insufferably hot and the ground underfoot scorched and cracking like glass. Homura breathed out a small sigh, his shoulders sagging from slight exhaustion from using one of his more powerful attacks.

"Now!" Pale red eyes widened as the fire manipulator leapt back in surprise as the two girls somehow survived the attack that had nearly turned an APC into molten slag. He knew he was on the losing side the moment the girls went on the offensive, his movements were slower from using all of that power at once and he was going to need a minute that he didn't have to catch his second wind, a second wind the two girls were denying him by keeping him on the move with well placed attacks, not only that but a few more of their attack were getting through, he was able to dodge most of them but the whip weapons with graze him just enough to draw blood. A nick here, a scratch there and the small trails of blood were beginning to weaken him.

That was when the wires wrapped around his right arm and leg.

Homura grunted in pain as his backward jump came to a screeching halt midair. He felt the wires go taut and slam him back towards the ground. Thankfully he landed somewhat on his remaining foot that wasn't held down but that advantage was soon lost as the whip of the other sister latched onto his left wrist, yanking that arm out too. Now, basically being pulled like a piece of taffy by two very deadly weapons, Homura was beginning to sweat.

"Oh? So matchstick finally burnt out eh?" The wire wielder taunted, confident in her wires abilities to hold the fire user down. "Maybe all we need to do is remove a bit of the burnt bit to get it going again." She through a cruel little smirk her sisters way. "What do you think Mitsuha?"

The girl shared in her grin. "Yeah, let's take a little off the top."

Homura blanched at the implications of that little conversation, implications that were confirmed when the wire wielder flicked one of her fingers in his general direction and a wire twirled up to wrap around his neck. The fire user gagged as the wire cut off his air, face turning slightly pale as the flow of blood to his brain was cut off. In moment's he would pass out, and in minutes he would probably be terminated. Homura began to sweat in earnest now, steam rose from his skin in small wisps and the moisture in his mouth instantly dried leaving him with cotton mouth.

Homura's power over fire had always been... _untamed_. It was like a wild animal, predictable in its ferociousness, it could be contained and directed, but never fully under control.

Now, lacking oxygen and blood flow to the brain, that fragile containment shattered.

The sweat evaporated instantly, wires turned red hot, clothing caught fire, body hair began to smolder.

Then all hell broke loose.

_**-ooo-**_

"Come on we're almost there." Ichigo called back to Yashima and Musubi. The had run for near to 3 minutes now at full speed, each second passing Kusano's spiritual energy was growing more and more desperate, fluctuating rapidly in fear and it pushed the Fullbringer on faster than even his two Sekirei could follow. They were close when Ichigo's blood froze in his veins. Where once he was able to feel Kusano's presence he could now barely feel it. It felt weakened, he could feel a small amount of pain in the air, as the lingering bits of Kusano's spiritual pressure dropped down to almost zero. The Fullbringer no longer thought , he only moved, his feet flashing green with bringer light as he moved faster than both his Sekirei could see.

He appeared in a clearing, a woman with her back to him, she carried in her hands a large scythe like weapon and wore what appeared to be a white schoolgirl dress and stockings, though the design wasn't one he recognized as it had a dark black design on the front and sides with red lines running down them. He could also make out that she had a bow around her neck and black riding gloves on her hands. Her brown hair hung to the middle of her back and covered most of what he could see of the back of the outfit

"Che," The girl scoffed. "I told you to stop kid, and now look what you made me do dammit." She appeared to bite her finger for a moment staring down at her feet at something. Ichigo felt the bottom of his stomach turn inside out at what the girl was saying.

"Dammit!" She cursed again, sighing as she shouldered her weapon. "If you'd just come along as you were told, but no, you had to attack me." The girl shook her head and turned around, revealing a bleeding Kusano at her feet. As she turned brown eyes met honey gold for a moment as she stared at Ichigo whom had a blank expression on his face. Ichigo's eyes moved slightly to glance down at the woman's feet.

A small girl, bloody and unmoving.

He took a step forward.

"Hey, who the hell are you?" The girl asked, bringing her weapon around in front of her when she noticed the blade in his hand.

Ichigo ignored her and took another step, slowly working his way over to Kusano.

"Hey, don't ignore me." The girl made to strike the Fullbringer with the back of her scythe to get his attention.

She never even saw the fist coming as four iron hard knuckles struck her in the cheek. Ichigo hadn't even broken his stride as he crouched down next to the green girls injured body.

The scythe girl screamed, slamming into a nearby tree which cut her screams short.

Ichigo fell to his knees, next to Kusano's body, noting the large cut across the girls chest from shoulder to waist which still leaked a small amount of blood. He quickly looked for a pulse while stemming the blood flow.

Air sucked through gritted teeth when he didn't feel a single beat in the girls veins. "Dammit!" A fist pounded into the dirt ground, leaving a deep pit. Another hand hit the girls chest in denial, hoping beyond hope that maybe... maybe it would do something... anything.

Nothing happened.

Ichigo pulled the girls body next to him, the warmth of the girl body still felt through skin contact. A single tear fell from his eyes.

"Hmm, such a shame that such a pretty little piece was removed the game, I would have liked her for my collection." Ichigo's blood froze for a second time that night as his head craned in the direction of the voice.

"Mikogami!" The Fullbringer lips pulled back in a snarl exposing every tooth in his mouth as he spat out the name. The boy in question stepped out from the shadows of the forest, the Sekirei that was with him before tagging along just slight one step behind and to the left of his master.

The boy in front of him sneered. "Well it it isn't the little thief come to play again." He eyed Kusano's body. "Humph, I see you took a liking to the girls body? If it wasn't for you stealing what was mine I wouldn't have had to go after this little one here. You have no one to blame but yourself, fool."

Ichigo's body went rigid as he stared at Mikogami. "You were targeting her?" He asked in a toneless voice.

"But of course." Mikogami nodded, tilting his head slightly to regard the girl groaning in pain at the base of the tree next to him. "Get up Yomi." he commanded and the girl rose shakily to her feet, bleeding from several places, including a deep gash in her head from where she struck the tree.

Ichigo's Reiryoka rose slightly as the girl knelt in front of Mikogami.

The arrogant bastard stared down at his Sekirei in contempt. "Look at me Yomi." The girl did and immediately regretted it as a hand struck her face roughly. "I told you to capture the green girl." He snarled. raising a foot to kick the girl in the chest, sending her groaning to the ground, holding her bruised ribs and sore face. "What part of 'capture' did you not understand."

"I'm sorry Mikogami-sama!" She cried pitifully. "I tried but she used her powers when I tried to grab her, if I hadn't cut through her attack it might have killed me." She coughed once, pointing shakily to several roots not far from Ichigo's position that had been cut off from the rest, the tips of which looked like they were honed to a razor sharp point, they could all see the small splatters of blood on one side of the roots where Yomi's scythe had hit.

Mikogami frowned, a scowl still apparent on his face. "You still failed me, You disappoint me Yomi, I don't like being disappointed."

"Y-yes Ashikabi-sama..." The girl swallowed heavily sitting in Seiza in front of her Ashikabi "I'll take any punishment you see fit."

"That you can guarantee." Mikogami spat, making the girl flinch. He turned back to Ichigo who was giving him a stony look.

Ichigo had watched the small altercation between Ashikabi and Sekirei and was finding it a bit harder to hate Yomi for what had happened to Kusano. After all it wasn't her fault that Mikogami had sent her after Kusano. It wasn't her fault that she had to defend herself from an attack, hurting Kuu in the process. And it certainly wasn't her fault that Mikogami was such a bastard to try and force a little girl to be his plaything in the first place. The beating and possible 'punishment' for such a trivial thing left a very, very bad taste in Ichigo's mouth and set his blood boiling.

Unintentionally, the Fullbringer began to leak a dark black miasma of Reiryoka from his body, which swirled around him in an almost invisible cloud, the dark canopy above masking most of the visible traces of the energy, however you couldn't mask the killing intent that was rolling off of Ichigo at that point, making everyone in the clearing uneasy.

An unease that was broken by soft coughing in Ichigo's arms. Ichigo froze in place, before slowly looking down at the girl in his arms.

She was breathing, even more than that the girl seemed to be glowing a faint green in the dark, his spiritual energy seemingly being sucked into the girls body and converted to that green aura which seemed to be sealing the wound on the girls chest at a slow but steady rate.

Thinking quickly Ichigo forced a bit more into the girls body, who's aura then began to grow considerably. Desperate to do something Ichigo poured around a Getsuga's worth of spiritual energy into the girls body, which lit it up enough to cast light out into the shadows several feet from their position. The girls hair took on a light green hue for a moment and several bushes nearby started growing and producing some kind of fruit on their limbs.

"So she isn't actually dead, huh?" Mikogami watched the light show curiously. "Humph, good enough for me." He pointed in Ichigo's direction. "Yomi, bring me the girl after you take care of this thief and I might forgive you for your failures."

"Yes, Ashikabi-sama." The girl agreed quietly, pulling herself shakily to her feet, using her scythe as a crutch.

Ichigo stood as well, pulling Kusano closer to him. "Just try it." He growled, holding his sword in front, blade pointed directly at Yomi. Apprehension filled Ichigo, Kusano was still injured somewhat and he couldn't just set her down anywhere Mikogami could potentially snatch her away from him. It was somewhat of a relief when Musubi and Yashima landed in the clearing beside him.

"Musubi, Yashima. You two take the scythe user." Golden brown eyes glared across the clearing at the man who would dare hurt a small child for his own ends. "Mikogami's mine." as the two girls rushed forward to attack Yomi, Ichigo calmly walked forward.

"You're planning to fight a Sekirei?" The man himself sneered. "You're either crazy or stupid."

"Neither." Ichigo assured him. His eyes flicked to the right as Akitsu landed in the clearing next to him. "Did you take care of the lightning twins?" Akitsu nodded. "Dead or escaped?"

"Escaped." She spoke tonelessly, her own gaze focusing on Mikogami. "Shall I fight them Ashikabi-sama?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No Akitsu, I have something more important for you to do." He handed Kusano over to Akitsu who reluctantly took the little girl in her arms. "Protect her, that's an order." Akitsu stiffened at her Ashikabi's tone, gripping the green girl a bit tighter. She nodded slowly, blushing slightly at how firm Ichigo's command was and took several steps back to stand among the trees for protection.

As Ichigo walked forward the Sekirei next to Mikogami approached to meet him.

"Names Mutsu." The male Sekirei replied calmly, hands comfortably at his side, the sword he carried in his left hand was sheathed and his other hand was a good distance from the hilt but Ichigo thought it better than to get too much closer and stopped several meters from the man.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, I don't suppose you'll to get out of the way, hmm?" Ichigo gripped his sword a little tighter when the man shook his head stiffly.

"No, I don't think I will." His friendly response didn't get a response from the Fullbringer except a small twitch from the man's sword hand. "I don't suppose you'll back off and leave?" hey, he was at least a hopeful Sekirei.

Ichigo shook his head as well, parroting his earlier words. "No, I don't think I will."

"Pity." Mutsu mumbled under his breath, resting a hand on his sword's handle. The Sekirei blinked and immediately felt his instincts tell him to draw his blade, that alone saved his life. Steel met steel sending sparks flying. Mutsu refocused on the face in front of him. All he saw was the golden eyes and the thin line of Ichigo's mouth as he growled in his face.

"Yeah, a real pity."

As the two sword wielders broke away from each other Musubi and Yashima were tag teaming Yomi. Yashima would come in with her hammer and slam down on the girls scythe, either forcing her to block or dodge. The first would numb the girls already numb hands which spoke of her initial attempts to do so. Or second, she would try to dodge the attack, getting sprinkled with shards of dirt or wood depending on what Yashima had slammed the giant weapon down onto in the first place. Then Yomi would have to worry about Musubi capitalizing on Yomi's distracted state to land a punch or two on the girls body or face. The several bruises on the girls face also spoke volumes how effective that tactic had been initially.

However, now that the surprise was fast fading from those tactics, Yomi had instead focused on long distance, using her compressed wind blades sent from her scythe as a projectile weapon, keeping the two melee fighters at a distance.

"Quit dodging dammit!" Yomi howled in annoyance, launching another barrage of wind blades.

Musubi and Yashima split, letting the wind blades pass between them as they rushed Yomi.

"Che!" The scythe user, flicked several wind blades at Musubi to distract as she rushed Yashima, intent on cutting down the slower but stronger of the two.

"Look out Yashima-san!" Musubi cried, trailing behind Yomi.

"Too late." Yomi crowed as she brought her weapon down on Yashima who barely had the chance to raise her heavier weapon in defense.

Yashima cringed as the very tip of Yomi's blade bit into her shoulder, the curved tip passing just over her guard to score a hit. A cry escaped her throat as the blade was tore free along with Yomi when Musubi slugged the woman from behind, sending her off into the tree line.

"Are you alright?" The fist Sekirei asked, staring intently at the wound.

Yashima grimaced slightly in pain. "I-I'm fine." She spoke quietly. "She's too fast for me." The girl admitted. "I don't know why Ashikabi-sama wanted me to help... the best I can do is block her attacks." She glanced over at her wound as it twitched in pain again. "And not very good either."

"Don't worry about it." Musubi patted the girl on the shoulder, being careful to avoid the wound. "We can beat her!"

"How can you be so sure." The girl asked in a whisper, fidgeting slightly under the more bubbly girls exuberance.

"Simple!" She slammed her fist into a palm with a wide grin on her face. "We'll win because of teamwork!"

"T-teamwork?" The hammer Sekirei squeaked.

"Mhmm" The bustier of the two nodded enthusiastically. "Ichigo-sama told us to fight her together so he want's us to work together as a team!" by now Musubi was hopping back and forth on the balls of her feet waiting for Yashima's response.

The girl in question found her shoes to be more interesting at the moment. _'Ichigo-sama...'_ conflicting thoughts had filled her head ever since she had been 're-winged' by her new Ashikabi, she still hurt, her memories dampened by her newfound love for the man that had killed her old one. Her heart still hurt, but she couldn't help but love Ichigo and he was far kinder than Junichi ever was to her. So kind and so protective...

She stiffened when she felt Musubi's arms around her. "Wha-?"

"Don't worry." Musubi smiled warmly. "I know it must be hard, your heart isn't in this battle, you're confused and anxious, but I know-" The bubbly girl's surprisingly soft voice filled her ears sending tingly little shocks up the hammer Sekirei's spine. "-Don't worry." She repeated, rubbing the girl on the back. "I know you can do it."

Yashima's heart soared at the comfortable touch and the words of encouragement, a small smile reached her lips as she hugged Musubi. "Thank you."

"I'll do anything for my little birds." Musubi whispered, her eyes flashing to Yume's yin-yang symbols for a moment before the bubbly cheerfulness of Musubi came back with a vengeance. "Alllright!" Musubi broke away from the other Sekirei's grasp and turned back to Yomi who was just now clawing her way out of the foliage that Musubi had knocked her into.

"I-" She growled pulling herself from a thorn bush which had covered her head to toe in thick barbs. "Am going-" Each of the barbs stuck painfully into her skin, drawing tiny dots of blood with dripped down her body. "To KILL YOU!" The girl grabbed her scythe and screamed in anger, lashing out at the two Sekirei with an extremely powerful wind blade.

A hammer slammed down in front of Musubi, Yashima's back pressed to the back of it as the wind blade slammed into the face of it. Several nick's appeared on the corners of the hammer but the metal was much much stronger and quite a bit more dense than normal steel so it weathered the attack rather well.

"Teamwork?" Yashima asked with a grimace as she moved the hammer back to it's place on her shoulder.

"Teamwork!" Musubi agreed, giggling happily. "Let's have a good fight!" Musubi charged forward towards Yomi with Yashima not far behind, her hammer trailing behind her, ready to defend Musubi from any of Yomi's attacks.

"Ahg, you two are so annoying" Yomi through a couple more wind blades which were just as effective as the previous one thanks to Yashima's hammer. "Fine then, you want to play that way?" She fired off another large wind blade, but this time followed along behind the attack.

As she predicted Yashima blocked it with her hammer. Yomi's feet slammed into the face of the hammer in a forward drop kick, tipping the hammer over onto Yashima.

The hammer Sekirei's eyes widened in surprise as her weapon pitched forward, taking her along for the ride. Musubi however, saw the attack coming and leapt over the falling weapon and girl.

"I have you now, bitch." Yomi growled, slashing her scythe at Musubi's midsection hoping to bisect the girl right in half.

She wasn't prepared, nor expecting Musubi to duck the attack, nor did she expect her to get a punched in her stomach. Spit and a small amount of blood flew from the girls lips as Musubi's fist ground into her internal organs like a corkscrew, sending her flying back into a tree.

"D-damn y-ou." Yomi gasped, spitting up a bit more blood as she struggled to look ahead. A shadow fell over her and she looked into the face of Yashima, her hammer raised above her head and a determined expression on her face.

"Fu-" She didn't get to finish her words.

As the pair were finishing off Yomi, Ichigo was having his own problems. After their first crossing of blades, Ichigo had found out what made this Sekirei a low class captain in Reiatsu. The bastard was an earth manipulator. The moment they had broken away to get some distance for another attack he had taken his sheath and slammed the thing into the earth sending out shockwave's that split the ground and nearly knocked Ichigo off his feet. It was only quick thinking that kept him from falling into a hole the next time that weapon hit the ground, causing deep fissures to form that split the battlefield in two.

_'Damn, haven't fought an earth user before.' _Ichigo frowned at how few people to take advantage of such a powerful resource as earth. You pretty much had to walk on the stuff every day and Ichigo had really only encountered maybe two people who actually used the stuff and even then Jackie only used it to blind him when she kicked him in the face with her Dirty Boots, while that Afro headed soul reaper he never got the name of only used it for capturing, impeding or otherwise halting his enemies advance so he could run away.

This Sekirei was also using it to keep him at a distance, but it was more to better utilize his earth powers than to run away. Maybe he wasn't that great with a blade then? Well, if he wanted to play long distance, two could play that game.

Tennis shoes hit solid ground and dug in as the Fullbringer sank into a crouch. _'Let's see how he likes this.' _Dark black spiritual energy gathered around Ichigo's arm, coalescing into his blade and holding there while gaining in intensity.

Mutsu watched this process in apprehension. _'What is he up to?' _ The earth user kept his sheath near the ground in case he had to throw up a quick defense, which proved to be a good thing in his case.

"Getsuga-!" Ichigo swung the small blade forward, releasing the pent up energy in a large arcing burst. "-Tensho!" The black crescent of energy flew like an arrow straight at Mutsu, who slammed his sheath into the ground, the subsequent quake launching a several foot thick slab of earth up to block the attack.

Only for the black energy blade to cut through it like hot butter.

Mutsu's eyes widened again as a frantically half uttered curse escaped his lips. Desperate the man leaned as far back as he was able, the attack slicing a lock of his hair as he fell back onto his ass.

_'What the hell was that?" _ The man thought frantically as he quickly got back to his feet, noting that Ichigo was preparing another Getsuga. _'That looked just like one of Miya's attacks. This kid couldn't be one of her's could it?' _ The earth Sekirei shook his head. _'No way, she wouldn't have been with anyone but Takehito and he's been long dead... but still...'_ Snapping back into the fight Mutsu dodged the next Getsuga by leaping over it, only to block a slash from Ichigo who had followed behind the attack.

Blade met blade once again as the two clashed in midair, breaking off as gravity once again took hold to land on either side of the fissure that was formed earlier.

"That attack just now..." Mutsu asked slowly. "Did someone named Miya teach it to you?"

"No." Ichigo replied smugly. "It's one of my original techniques." Technically the black Getsuga was his hollows trick, it was still apart of his fullbring powers as they were based on hollow Reiryoka and he was the original owner of this body so it was still kind of his attack.

Mutsu breathed a sigh of relief, at least he wasn't related to Miya, his presence was similar to hers, as was the color of his power. For a moment there he really thought that Ichigo was Miya's kid... Just the thought of that sent chills down the normally composed Sekirei's spine.

"Getsuga Tensho!" Mutsu snapped to attention, rolling out of the way of the blast and leaping to the side to right himself midair. Ichigo was there in his face a second later, little green lights flickering around his feet all the while. Blades met for the third time. This time there was no room to do anything fancy, now special earth powers or time to charge any powerful Getsuga, it was simply a fight between swordsmen now.

And Ichigo was frankly impressed. You would think a distance fighter would be scared to fight up close. But no, Mutsu fought as well as Miya did when she was holding back, if not better. The Fullbringer held no doubts that Miya could probably wipe the floor with him at full power but at his current ability he was keeping up and dealing genuine damage to him. A cross would be parried low to score a nick on an arm, a block would be pushed, numbing hands and getting a nice slice in the shoulder for the trouble, and several other attacks that would score minor damage.

The two clinched again, sword blades bouncing off each other as they moved in for another attack. Ichigo ducked a horizontal slash before moving in close, raising his shorter blade for an overhead slash which was diverted to the side. Capitalizing on the opening, Mutsu made to slash across Ichigo's exposed back only to catch a foot to the chest as Ichigo planted his blade into the dirt and used it as a pivot to spin around and kick him.

Most people forgot that the Fullbringer was just as skilled with his body as he was with a blade.

"Nice kick." The Earth Sekirei coughed, rubbing the sore spot that was probably going to bruise later. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

Ichigo chuckled at the disarming question. "Karate since I was a brat, a year and a half's worth of sword training when I was sixteen from some of the best around and since then mastered around a half dozen or so other martial art styles."

Mutsu nodded his head respectfully. "Impressive."

"Likewise." Ichigo nodded. "Who taught you?"

Chuckling at the witty banter between them. "Eh, most Sekirei are self taught using gut instinct. Me? I was taught by Miya-san."

Orange eyebrows rose. "You got taught by that crazy landlady?" He snorted, no wonder you like to stay at a distance, she's a demon with a sword."

Mutsu blinked. "You've actually fought that crazy woman? How...?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "We sparred once." The tip of his blade tapped his lips for a moment in thought. "I think she took it easy on me, but then again, so did I."

"You are one crazy bastard." The Earth Sekirei shook his head. "I wouldn't even think about fighting her for real without at least three other Single numbers helping."

Ichigo blinked, was Miya really that powerful? Eh, he could find out later. Right now was fighting time. A flicker of Green gave away his intentions as Mutsu raised his blade to block another attack.

"I really don't want to be fighting you." He grunted, holding back Ichigo's blade.

"Neither do I actually." The orangette agreed. "But you're in the way."

"So are you." Mutsu Shot back.

Ichigo pushed harder against Mutsu's blade. "We're in agreement then!" Black energy build up around the blade of Ichigo's sword "Getsuga-!

Mutsu's eyes widened in panic "Oh crap!" He took one hand off his blade, sacrificing some foot room to slam his sheath into the ground.

"Tenshoooo!" Ichigo's yell was lengthened a bit as the ground underneath him suddenly rose like a carnival ride to launch him up into the air, his Getsuga just missing Mutsu's head by a few inches and sailing off to smack a tree behind him, felling the poor thing and bringing a small sigh of relief from Ichigo's now sweating target.

Ichigo meanwhile was about fifty feet in the air and falling fast. Righting himself midair the Fullbringer 'pulled' on the surrounding atmosphere. Green lines flickered to life around him, one around his mid section, another across his ankles and finally one underneath his feet, all of them curving around him in some way. Landing on a soft cushion of air, Ichigo stared down at the Earth Sekirei and let out a little smirk. "How's the weather down there." He quipped, feeling a bit snarky, after that litte 'ride'

Mikogami who had been watching, gaping like a fish on the sidelines, stared up at Ichigo in awe and slight fear. "He can fly?"

"Mutsu's eyes snapped up to stare blankly at Ichigo. Standing in midair. Like it was solid ground. "You can fly?" He asked dumbly.

A loud crash exploded behind Ichigo, he glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Musubi and Yashima, the latter of which had just slammed her hammer into a now unconscious Yomi. The two of them were now staring up at him, mouths agape. "Ichigo/Ashikabi-sama can fly?"

Akitsu on the sidelines blinked, about as much emotion as she could manage at the moment. "Ah... flying...?"

Ichigo snorted at the combined shock of his audience. "Yeah I fly" Just to prove a point he released the bringer light around his feet, plummeting the forty or so feet to the ground only to stop a foot or two from the surface, green lights flickering around his heels.

"You can fly." Mutsu repeated dumbly, before palming his face. "This is like Kazehana's Schtick all over again." He stared Ichigo in the eye. "Please tell me you're not a habitual drunkard."

A look of confusion crossed Ichigo's face. "No, I hate the stuff, why?"

"...Nothing." The Earth Sekirei glanced over at Yomi who was in a half foot deep crater either unconscious, terminated or dead. None of those options a pleasant thing given that he was now outnumbered three (four including Akitsu) to one. _'Looks like it's about time to make a tactical retreat'_ He mumbled under his breath, leaping back and grabbing a hold of Mikogami's waist. "We're leaving." He spoke up, informing his Ashikabi to his sudden intentions. The Earth Sekirei's eyes flickered over to Yomi once more. "What should I do about her?"

The bratty Ashikabi glanced over at Yomi for a moment before raising his nose to her. "Leave her, if she survives she'll come back, if not..." He left his answer open.

"You sure." Mutsu asked, wanting to make perfectly sure.

"I do not tolerate failure." He spoke with finality, earning a glare from Ichigo and a sigh from Mutsu.

"Very well." The Earth Sekirei spoke tonelessly, slamming his sheath into the ground raising the earth up between them and Ichigo's team, along with several other openings in the trees that was in their general direction, allowing them to escape unhindered.

"That's that I guess." Ichigo shrugged, twitching slightly when Akitsu appeared behind him.

"Ashikabi-sama." She lifted Kusano like she was going to hand her to him.

"You hold onto her." Ichigo commanded, before a small smile reached his lips. "You did good."

"Ah." Her gaze flicked to the side, a light red blush on her cheeks. "Thank you."

The Fullbringer spun on his heels to face his other two Sekirei. "You all did good" He slapped a hand down on Musubi and Yashima's shoulders reassuringly. He was happy to see that Yashima hadn't flinched at the contact, maybe she was warming up to him after all?

A small whining groan rang out in the clearing. Ichigo's attention flickered to Yomi who was still in the crater a few feet away. The woman's clothing were shredded from that last attack, the power of Yashima's strike pretty much ripping through the fabric like it was nothing, which left the woman's Sekirei crest bare to the world, or what was left of it anyway as it was slowly fading away even as the four watched.

"I...can't... I'm... I'm sorry... M-miko... gami." The girl moaned pitifully, somehow knowing that she'd been abandoned even in a state of unconsciousness as a single tear dripped down her cheek.

Bitter anger flared up in Ichigo's mind, _'How DARE he!' _Ichigo's fullbring was almost smoking from the heat coming off of it. His anger and pride reflecting in the emotions his fullbring were feeding on, even his Sekirei were staring at Ichigo apprehensively as they felt his emotions burning through the link like liquid hot rage.

Slowly the anger melted away to be replaced with a cold fury, it wouldn't do to frighten his girls anymore than he had. He had abandoned... no, _discarded _ Yomi like she was so much trash. Even if she was his worst enemy he wouldn't have done that, He hadn't done that to Grimmjow when the victory crazed Arrancar had taken that last battle finishing hit. No he had grabbed his hand and lowered him slowly, respectfully to the ground. This. This was a travesty.

But there was also Kusano to think about. golden eyes settled on the green girls still form. Her breathing was slow and even while she was asleep, the large wound that had nearly killed her was now almost completely gone, the only thing remaining was a nearly transparent scar running from her shoulder to her waist that would likely disappear completely in a year or two.

"Ichigo." The man in question turned to Musubi to see that familiar sight of twin Yin-yang symbols in her eyes. "Are you, or aren't you?" The question was simple. Would he do the same thing to Yomi as he had for Yashima?

Ichigo grit his teeth for a moment in anger as he thought of what could have happened with Kusano... but then the anger bled away when the fact were against him. It hadn't happened, or at least it wasn't permanent. Kusano was fine... and Yomi had been abandoned like trash when all she wanted to do was please her Ashikabi. Frankly this whole Sekirei Ashikabi link was starting to make him sick. If it forced these girls to love a man as despicable as Mikogami... It turned his stomach just thinking about it.

Letting out a deep sigh the Fullbringer nodded. "I'm just too nice." He lowered his hand over what was left of Yomi's crest, hovering just enough for one of Musubi's Yume controlled hands to clasp over the spot the mark should have been as it had nearly completely disappeared while he had been deciding.

Light flared as Ichigo pumped his spiritual energy into Musubi's hand watching intently as the Crest that was completely gone by now reform like before, filling the abandoned woman with energy enough to rouse her from her hammer induced slumber.

"M-miko...gami?" She asked quietly, rising up to sit on her legs. Her voice was full of anxiety as she likely felt the loss of her connection to her Ashikabi due to the crests near total disappearance.

"Sorry about this." Ichigo's voice was solemn, as the girls eyes widened in fear. The Sekirei all around her must have scared her silly, Ichigo mused dryly. Grabbing the woman's shoulders lightly Ichigo pulled her in close.

"Wh-what the hell are you doing?" She asked quickly. "Let me go you bastard I need to go find Mikogami so I can-!" She didn't get to say anymore as Ichigo's lips met hers.

Light flared behind her as the two felt the connection begin to take place. a dozen bright silver wings curved out from behind Yomi, each taking the form of a thin, elongated bat wing that was highly reminiscent of a scythe blade.

Finally the moment was broken, the link made and the two broke the liplock to stare into each other's eyes. Ichigo's held regret and sadness that he basically had to do this yet again to save someone, basically binding them body and soul to him just to survive.

Yomi's held shock, first and foremost, along with a few traces of anger and confusion and finally a tiny drop of sadness that just tore at the heart of the one looking at it.

"I'm sorry." Ichigo mumbled again, still holding the girl at arms length, his head lowered, eyes shadowed by his hair.

*Smack* Ichigo blinked, a light red hand print on his face and a scowling girl in his personal space.

"Don't you dare apologize." She smacked him over the head a second time for good measure. "I heard what that bastard Mikogami said he..." The girls voice turned bitter. "He abandoned me." Hard brown eyes full of anger and tears tore away from Ichigo's to inspect a particularly interesting bush in the opposite direction of all the prying eyes. Pitying eyes in her opinion. She didn't need their damn pity! She flinched when Ichigo's hands clamped down on her shoulders again, this time he pulled her into a tight hug that she tried and failed to break out of _'Just how damn strong is this guy?'_ She tried to fight it but one by one Ichigo's other Sekirei, starting with Musubi and ending with Akitsu who had to shift Kusano around a bit had joined in the hug.

"I'm sorry." Ichigo mumbled again into her shoulder.

"Che." The scythe wielder tried to look away but she was completely enveloped in bodies now and was forced to stare into the eyes of at least one other person. Finally she just gave up and closed her eyes, snuggling her head into the crook of Ichigo's shoulder and sighing. "Fine..." This was going to be a long hug...

_**-ooo-**_

We find Ichigo's group walking out of the Atrium, Kusano still in Akitsu's arms and Yomi hanging onto Ichigo's back piggy back style.

"You don't have to carry me you know." The woman deadpanned.

"I know." Ichigo deadpanned right back. "You're still going to stay right were you are."

"Ugh..."

The Fullbringer was about to make a smart remark on her attitude when a large explosion resounded through the woods, coming from the direction of where Homura and the whip twins had been fighting.

Ichigo was off like a shot, Yomi screaming along for the ride.

It took only a moment to find the source of the explosion and it wasn't a pretty sight.

The whip twins were badly burned, but both were conscious and limping away from the scene, their weapons burnt or melted into so much slag, at the center of the explosion was a nearly unconscious Homura, and fire was completely surrounding him in a wreath of flames, even now he could see the man's clothing beginning to burn away and his hair was already smoldering in places.

Ichigo cursed loudly, handing off Yomi to Musubi for a moment.

"Hey what the hell are you doin?" the Scythe wielder complained, shifting body's for the moment as Ichigo walked closer to the flames.

"Something I haven't done in awhile." Ichigo spoke up watching the flames eat away at the fringes of Homura's coat and pants, he'd never done a fire as big as this before but...

Ichigo dug into the well of his spiritual power, grabbing hold of a large amount and pushed it outside. Immediately a way of spiritual pressure nearly brought all those present to their knee's. Slowly, the pressure eased up and a bright green glow covered the space the flames were occupying. Ichigo _pulled_ on the soul of the flames denying them the fuel they needed to stay aflame. It was something he devised after having too close a run in with a fire wielding Hollow and it worked for all kinds of flames, even those composed of Reishi like Homura's or even Yamamoto's, though the Fullbringer seriously doubted that he could put out the flames of Ryujin Jakka as easily as he had with Homura's

Flames sizzled and crackled before sputtering out like a wet fuse. Then Ichigo fell to his knee's, as using that much spiritual pressure all at once drained him more than it should have... maybe there was too much spiritual energy in that fire after all, ugh...

Struggling back to his feet the Fullbringer approached the downed man, hoping beyond hope that he hadn't been too late and his possible ally wasn't a crispy piece of bacon. With a sigh Ichigo was relieve to see that yes, Homura was alive and yes, he was also relatively fine, just a few minor burns here and there. Although when Ichigo grabbed a hold of him he was surprisingly hot, like he was running a fever, he also noted that the man was curiously light, like a feather almost... Walking over to Akitsu he asked if she could carry the flame Sekirei on a block of ice which she responded with a short nod, handing Kusano over to Musubi who practically squealed at the chance to hold her.

Akitsu spawned a large, floating gurney of ice which Ichigo laid him on, almost immediately the ice started melting with a slight hissing noise, Akitsu frowned slightly before the ice stopped it's noise making and fully solidified under the man. Ichigo meanwhile had reclaimed Yomi as his passenger and the seven made their way back to Masion Izumo. That is until something else unexpected happened...

Ichigo froze. Something was not where it was supposed to be, Something of Yomi's was where it was not supposed to be, her hand specifically was inspecting something that it really shouldn't be inspecting...

"Could you... um... not do that please?" He asked her politely, flinching slightly as he felt her hand move.

"Oh? Why should I?" She purred in his ear. "Everyone knows you need a safety bar to _ride_ on those _long, hard rides_"

A hard lump went down Ichigo's throat at that along with turning a brilliant shade of scarlet as the woman decided that his handlebar was a nice thing to secure herself with. "I'm going to pretend that you didn't just say that and suppress this in the deepest darkest corner of my soul."

Yomi gave him a funny look. "Whater you gay?"

"Repressing repressi-urk" Apparently Yomi didn't like that very much and had grabbed hold of little Ichigo a bit too hard.

"I wasn't able to do this kind of thing with Mikogami because the bastard's a kid and a prude, two things I don't touch." She squeezed a bit harder eliciting a gasp from Ichigo. "But I promise you." She whispered hungrily in his ear. "We're going to get _plenty_ of mileage out of this thing real soon." She was about to pull away but almost as an afterthought she started stroking his behind sensually. "Whether you like it or not. Oh and before I forget, this is payback for that little group hug earlier."

Ichigo gulped audibly as they continued their march to Maison Izumo, beginning to regret winging the hostile woman, maybe he could convince her of sleeping with Musubi or Yashima? The hope that the overly sexual woman was a carpet muncher died when she grabbed his junk again, twisting it in her hand ever so slightly to cause discomfort. This was going to be a long, frustrating walk...

_**-ooo**_

_**Ain't got much to say but DONNNNNNNNNE with this SHIT FINALLY UGH!**_

_**Lot's of juicy fighting this chapter, what are ya'lls thoughts on the fight scenes? Did they turn out ok after my writers block induced absence? **_

_**Also since there's been a couple people asking what happened to Minato in this story... well he exists, and he's still related to whom he's related too as was hinted at by Takami in chapter four of this story. BUT he isn't going to play any major roles in this story... at all... why? Because I hate his character archetype. I despise... Uke's *Shudder* ...and the author of Sekirei is mainly a Yaoi author so she does Uke very, very well. and it's mainly the reason why the big, strong Seme characters like Seo, Higa and Homura are all Bishie and aggressive to Minato, because if this were a Yaoi, Minato would have already had half the male cast pining after his ass, while all the girl Sekirei would find the whole thing unbearably -KAWAII- **_

_**I think I would rather choke on a cactus than read that kind of thing... Don't get me wrong, I've read yaoi and at times I've even enjoyed a few of them. Having the main character act like a spineless wimp when they are a borderline genius with a bunch of battle harem vixens surrounding them is just plain retarded. **_

_**Ok going off on a tangent there, the reasons I'm talking about this is because people wanna know where the hell Minato's at... well, he's getting shipped off on a bus(LITERALLY) to someplace I call Omakeland. Yeah, that's right, A little side story of omakes of Minato's time at his new school are going to be... interesting... Oh and he's actually sixteen instead of nineteen in these omakes, mainly because I said so and he's going to turn seventeen in short order soon enough as it is. Also there really isn't any good college harem anime's so this one is going to be in a highschool, one that you all might find preeeeeety familiar...**_

_**-Omake time-**_

_March 31, 2020_

_'Dear journal_

_Tomorrow's the day, the day I start my new school, I can't believe I even got in, it's so surreal right now. I even started a new Journal to record it!_

_I thought I was just going to be some highschool drop out but no, I actually have a chance to become a somebody... here's hoping I don't screw that up too..._

_It's kind of strange how I got in though, there really wasn't any problems, no overly complicated paperwork, just a few signatures, a tuition paid and that's that... Even the way I found out about this place is unbelievable, to think that weird robed man would just drop this while he's walking along... I'd feel uncomfortable about this if I hadn't already checked it out online. It seems like a nice place; good credentials, good staff, great classes and electives. Everything seems so perfect... a little too perfect... _

_Ugh, that's just pre-day jitters, I need to go calm down..._

_...Ok I'm back... _

_Tomorrows the day, tomorrow I start my new life at highschool, I can't help but feel good about this, like this is going to be a great year._

_A great year at Yokai Academy!_

_Until then._

_Minato Sahashi'_

_**-ooo-**_

_**I'm evil, I know it. **_

_**These journal entries are going to be a thing. It's evil, I know it. It pleases me**_

_**Muahahaahahahahahaaaa...**_


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